Government accepted two men who could not be tried in the US, at the same time as protesting medevac bill would leave Australia powerless to prevent ‘murderers’ arriving from offshore detention

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The Australian government has resettled as humanitarian migrants two Rwandan men who had been charged with murder, on request from the US government.

Under the secret deal, reported by US outlet Politico on Thursday, Australia accepted Leonidas Bimenyimana and Gregoire Nyaminani, essentially as refugees, in November. Guardian Australia has confirmed the men were resettled into the Australian community.

At the same time the Australian government was arguing against proposed legislation for evacuating sick refugees and asylum seekers from Manus Island and Nauru to Australia, claiming it would strip the government of the power to prevent murderers and other criminals coming into Australia.

According to the Politico report, the two men had confessed to their involvement in the 1999 murder of eight tourists – four Britons, two Americans and two New Zealanders – on a gorilla-watching trip in the Ugandan rainforests.

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They were brought to the US for trial over the murder of the two US victims in 2003, alongside a third Rwandan man, but after a protracted legal wrangle a US judge ruled the men had been tortured in Rwanda and the case was dropped. The men then claimed they could not be returned to Rwanda because they would be persecuted. Diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks reveal the US sought Rwandan assurances the men would be safe, but human rights groups argued it ran against the US’s international obligations, including nonrefoulement.

All three remained incarcerated in the US detention system until the Australian deal was sealed.

Some people who were at the gorilla park on the day of the murder questioned whether the Rwandan men had “legitimately” confessed, and expressed doubt that the FBI had actually found the three men responsible, Politico reported.

The two men are former members of the Hutu rebel group Army for the Liberation of Rwanda, an offshoot of Rwandan armed forces and paramilitary groups largely responsible for the 1994 genocide.

On Thursday evening Scott Morrison confirmed the men were in Australia but said they had been screened by security agencies.

“That included checks relating to national security, criminality, war crimes, and crimes against humanity,” he said.

“That resulted in an assessment that they did not represent a risk to security and they were cleared.”

Speaking at the National Press Club in Canberra, Morison earlier said he wouldn’t canvas specifics of matters of national security in open forums, but that every entrant to Australia “under any arrangements” are subject to character and security assessments by security and immigration agencies.

“Allegations I know have been made out there in the public form,” Morrison said.

“But what I can assure Australians of is this: our Australia will always ensure that those character and national security considerations are undertaken for anyone who seeks to enter this country.”

Asked to give an assurance that “no suspected murderers have been allowed in under your government’s watch”, Morrison repeated that “full” assessments are conducted for every entrant.

At the same time as the men were reportedly resettled in Australia, parliament was beginning a rancorous debate over proposed legislation for medically evacuating sick refugees and asylum seekers from Manus Island and Nauru to Australia.

The government insisted passing the bill would mean criminals, including murderers, could be brought to Australia.

“It doesn’t provide for the usual arrangements which would enable us to reject someone coming to Australia because they have a criminal history,” Morrison said in February.

“They may be a paedophile, they may be a rapist, they may be a murderer and this bill would mean that we would just have to take them.”

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Mark Avis, whose 27-year-old wife Rhonda was killed in Uganda, said he was not told by the Australian or New Zealand governments that the two men were in Australia.

Avis, who lives in Auckland, said he learned about the men’s resettlement from the Politico reporters some weeks ago.

“The fact they have got technically a free life, so to speak, to say I am disappointed would be a very, very big understatement,” he told Guardian Australia.

Avis said he hadn’t digested the news yet, and would go through the various reports to get more information.

“I haven’t really overly thought about [how it feels to have them so close]. Obviously I am disappointed with the Australian government deal with things, but for me, it was 20 years ago and I couldn’t even tell you ... where they are in Australia.”

He also noted Australia’s increasing deportations of people with criminal convictions, including a large number of New Zealanders.

“It comes as a bit of a surprise, because I know how the Australian government feels about criminals in regards to exporting, in terms of sending them back to their so-called home countries.”

The Politico report has also renewed questions around the deal struck between Australia and the Obama administration for the US to resettle up to 1,250 refugees from Australia’s offshore processing centres.

One of the architects of that deal, Anne Richard, the former US assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration, told Guardian Australia the offer came from a sense in the US that the situation on Nauru and Manus Island was “bad” and they expected Australia to “do more” to help other refugees in return, including Central Americans in Costa Rican refugee camps.

There was speculation that it included a formal “people swap” with the US, a claim that was dismissed by both sides. However a transcript of a phone call between the then Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and newly elected US president Donal Trump was leaked in August 2017.

In apparently seeking to reassure Trump, who labelled the arrangement the “worst deal ever”, Turnbull said Australia would be taking people the Obama administration “were very keen on getting out of the United States”.

“We will take more. We will take anyone that you want us to take,” Turnbull said.

US government authorities have been contacted for comment. The New Zealand government declined to comment.