Majority of refugees to be resettled in the new year are from Pakistan and Afghanistan
Nearly 200 refugees from Australia’s offshore detention islands of Nauru and Manus will be resettled in the United States in the new year.
But the newly-reinstated travel ban imposed by US president Donald Trump is excluding certain nationalities, including Iranians and Somalis, from resettlement.
Iranian refugees have been told the president’s executive order has meant “the United States government is currently undertaking an additional review of refugees resettlement from selected countries worldwide and will temporarily prioritise refugee applications from other countries”.
“This means that refugees processing from selected countries, including in your resettlement case, will occur at a slower pace.”
The Trump travel ban, reinstated by the US supreme court earlier this month, suspends the entry into the US of nationals from Chad, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, North Korea and Venezuela.
Iranians make up the largest cohort of refugees on both of Australia’s offshore processing centres.
The Guardian understands about 130 people from Nauru have been accepted to move to the US, and close to 60 from PNG.
The group will be the second cohort resettled under the US dealbrokered in 2016, after 54 refugees went to the US in September.
The majority of refugees accepted for resettlement in the current group are from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and stateless Rohingyans from Myanmar and Bangladesh.
On Nauru, young men from Afghanistan and Pakistan, who arrived on the island as unaccompanied children but have since reached adulthood, have been accepted for resettlement. Some Iranian refugees have been rejected. Several families, from Iran and Sri Lanka, have also been rejected.
Smuggled footage shows horrific conditions in Manus detention centre – video
On Manus, Sudanese refugee Abdul Aziz Muhamat said those accepted for resettlement had been told they will leave for the United States on 12 January.
“Those who received their results today were so excited that they will fly to the US … and the others in the camps are so sad because their names are not on the list. I hope everyone will get his freedom to a safe country soon.
“The US deal will take many months or years and will not provide places for everyone. We will continue our protests on Manus until there is a safe country for everyone.”
Ezatullah Kakar, a Pakistani refugee, told the Guardian he was still waiting for an interview for his resettlement. His roommate has left Manus for Port Moresby, ahead of flying to the United States next month.
“We are still waiting. Of course it’s hard. And it’s the same game, like other people on our boats, we were all in Christmas Island and they went to Australia and we were sent to Manus.”
Kakar said the US resettlement process would likely take months for those still waiting for initial interviews.
“It’s very hard; I can’t believe they are wasting all this time.”
Last week, Australian immigration minister Peter Dutton said the resettlement process was the bailiwick of US authorities, but that the process was progressing.
“I am hoping there can be an uplift as soon as possible but that is an issue for the United States ... and interviews continue, the background checks, and all of that process that the United States is involved in continues.”
Department sources say there is increasing confidence the US will accept close to the 1,250 refugees it has previously publicly suggested could be settled, and that that figure could be reached by the end of its current annual intake, which resets in October.
The 1,250 would not be enough to clear Australia’s offshore islands of refugees. There are about 1,600 refugees currently held in both Nauru and PNG.
Asylum seekers found not to meet the criteria for protection under the refugees’ convention are not being considered for US resettlement.
Ian Rintoul, from the Refugee Action Coalition, said the latest cohort to be accepted for resettlement was “great news” for those selected. “But it also exposes all the problems that exist with the US deal: the selective nature of the agreement; the travel ban having an impact. People have been waiting over four years, but so many still don’t know what is going to happen to them.
“The US deal is not going to provide enough places for all the people found to be owed protection. That has created enormous anxiety and distress.”
SOURCE: The Guardian
