Transcript
Under the deal announced by the Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, the resettlement of Nauru and Manus Island refugees in the US will be co-ordinated by the United Nations refugee agency. But the agency's Canberra office says while it endorses the agreement it is not a party to the deal. The arrangement reflects a much-needed solution for refugees who have been held for over three years and who remain in a precarious situation. Appropriate solutions must be found for all of them. Australia must be part of the solution for refugees and asylum seekers who have family ties to Australia. The Human Rights Law Centre says the deal foreshadows the deportation of 370 refugees from Nauru and Manus currently in Australia.
"This announcement is full of holes. No timeframe. No numbers. No detail on what the government will do with the hundreds of innocent people who will be left behind. It's not a plan. It also says nothing about whether families separated by the current offshore detention arrangements will ever be reunited."
Malcolm Turnbull says about 1,600 refugees on Nauru and Manus Island could be eligible for resettlement in America. But the Refugee Action Coalition's Ian Rintoul says there's a danger President Trump will back out of the arrangement. Mr Rintoul says even if the deal goes ahead the priority it gives to resettling women and children means hundreds of single men could be left behind.
"What is very clear is that this is not an all encompassing deal. This is something which has been done in haste, it's been done by a desperate government I think probably driven by the change of administration in the United States. It is absurd that the Australian government is not willing to provide protection to people who have come here by boat but is willing to go to the United states and other countries to see whether it can."
The Manus Island detainee and Kurdish Iranian journalist, Behrouz Boochani, also doubts President Trump will honour the deal. Mr Boochani says he's not willing to leave Manus until Australia is made to answer for his wrongful three year detention
"If they want to transfer me to America it's hard for me to accept because of justice. They tortured me, how can I accept that, they tortured me for a long time. I will stay here and I will resist. I want to say, no, you don't have respect for human rights and show to people that there is not any justice."
Malcolm Turnbull, on the other hand, is confident President Trump will honour the deal.
"The United States has no closer ally we have no closer ally. So we have a very long history of cooperation with the United States in matters of this kind where we are able to pursue our mutual and our respective humanitarian and indeed national security objectives."
Malcolm Turnbull says officals from the US will visit Australia and Nauru later in the week.
