The United States Deal to Resettle Australia’s Refugees

The United States and Australia have reached an agreement according to which the U.S.  will resettle refugees detained in the Pacific Island nations of Nauru and Papua New Guinea. In late October, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull proposed legislation that would prevent asylum seekers arriving by boat from ever entering Australia, maintaining the Turnbull government’s hardline anti-immigration policy. The administration imposed a lifetime ban on all visas, including those related to tourism, business, family, and medical needs.

Turnbull has not specified whether he has alerted President-elect Donald Trump about this deal, or whether the deal would still be valid after his inauguration.

“We deal with one administration at a time and there is only one president of the United States at a time,” Turnbull emphasized to the reporters.

Nauru currently holds about 410 men, women, and children, whereas Manus Island, a province of Papua New Guinea, holds 823. These asylum seekers, coming from a variety of regions, including the Middle East and Africa, sought to reach Australia by boat but failed to do so.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials will conduct their own assessments of refugees this week to decide which people will be admitted into the U.S.

“This agreement has been struck after months and months of very careful planning,” Turnbull said at a news conference in Canberra. His government has signaled that priority will be given to women, children, and families.

Turnbull did not specify the exact number of refugees that the United States will resettle, but he stated that priority will be given to the most vulnerable. Refugees who arrive in the future will not be resettled in the United States.

“It is a one-off agreement,” Mr. Turnbull said. “It will not be repeated. It is only available to those in the regional processing centers. It will not be available to any persons who seek to reach Australia in the future.”

In New Zealand, Secretary of State John Kerry confirmed that the United States had “agreed to consider [refugee] referrals” from detention centers in Nauru and Papua New Guinea.

“We are going to work to protect vulnerable refugees around the world, and we’ll share that responsibility with our friends in the regions that are most affected by this challenge,” Kerry said.