Ten single Afghan men have gotten their approval to come to the US along with other mostly Muslim migrants who have been in Australian off-shore detention, some for nearly four years. As many as 90 could join the 50 detainees from Australia (the ‘refugees’ Australia doesn’t want!) who have already arrived in the US.
Remember readers these are predominantly men who attempted to illegally enter Australia by boat a few years ago.
The Obama Administration, just before leaving office, cut what President Trump labelled a “dumb deal” whereby we would take up to 1,250 of them to be placed in Anytown, USA (and pay for it all!) and in exchange Australia would take some small number of Central Americans who aren’t even in the US.
Malcolm Turnbull has been sweating it lately, but it looks like Trump is coming through to save his political neck.
President Trump is honoring the deal and so I feel free to now call it Trump’s dumb deal!
From Australia’s The New Daily (hat tip: Jon):
Dozens of refugees on Australia’s offshore processing centre on Nauru are learning if they will be moving to the United States to start a new life, The New Daily can reveal.
US authorities were expected to hand out more than 70 final decisions on the resettlement deal from Monday. The exact number of men, women and children due to learn their fate was unclear, but Ian Rintoul from Refugee Action Coalition said it could be as much as 90.
An Iranian family was rejected on Monday, along with some single applicants, Iranian detainee Saman told The New Daily on Monday afternoon.
At least 10 single men from Afghanistan were approved.
Those accepted through the deal have been told they will relocate to the US next year. They will be required to undergo further medical assessments.
Earlier, Mr Rintoul said further refugees had also received notifications to have their first interview with US authorities, while others were having follow-up appointments to progress through the deal.
[….]
In September, 54 refugees living on Nauru and Manus Island were the first to be resettled in the US. There are hopes up to 1250 refugees will be accepted under the deal.
Earlier this month, a spokesperson from PRM said further refugees were expected to be resettled “in coming months”.
BTW, another dumb thing Trump has done has been to place no one in charge of PRM (Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration) so the long-time bureaucrats are running the show there.
It’s too bad we can’t know which ‘lucky’ towns and cities will welcome the Australian rejects—one more example of the secrecy that surrounds refugee resettlement in America!
See my Australia deal archive by clicking here.
