Australian government insists it will push ahead with resettlement deal despite threat Donald Trump will block refugees from Muslim countries

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Barnaby Joyce has said it would not be the “end of the world” if the United States tears up a deal to resettle refugees in Australia’s offshore detention facilities on Manus Island and Nauru.

But the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, and other government officials insist the deal will continue despite suggestions that Donald Trump will order a temporary ban on most refugees and suspend visas for citizens of some Middle Eastern and African countries.

In November the Turnbull government announced the deal for the US to take the refugees, who are mostly from Iran, Syria, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Iraq, just one week after Trump’s election.

It’s hard for me to leave Manus Island without justice: Behrouz Boochani on the US refugee deal Read more

Concerns were immediately raised that Trump’s immigration policies were incompatible with the deal, and he would end it despite Australia’s commitment to take refugees from camps in Costa Rica.

US officials have already visited Nauru, and visited Manus Island on Friday – just hours before Trump’s inauguration – and told refugees that interviews for potential resettlement would begin next month.

Asked on 2GB Radio on Thursday if the deal was now in grave doubt, Australia’s deputy prime minister said: “Let’s see.”

Joyce expressed hope the deal would go ahead, describing it as “well-planned and well thought out”.

“In all of this we have a shared responsibility across the globe, to have strong borders,” he said.

He claimed that although Australia used to be criticised for its refugee policies, other countries now recognised: “The only way we can control this problem is to say ‘if you came here of your own volition you have to go back where you came from or certainly you’re never going to get to stay here’.”

Asked if the deal collapsing would be “the end of the world”, Joyce insisted “it’s not, of course not”.



“It doesn’t mean we’re going to be changing our position. There’s one way you can come to this country: it’s with our permission.”

US officials visit Manus Island as Australia's refugee deal set to proceed Read more

Joyce did not explain what would happen to more than a thousand refugees in detention on Manus Island and Nauru if they were not accepted by the US, as the Australian government has no other third-party resettlement deal in place.

At a press conference in Canberra on Thursday, Turnbull said the government was “certainly pushing ahead” with the agreement.



“Obviously ... all of these issues are ones that you have to revisit with the incoming administration and we have done that,” he said without elaborating whether the Trump administration itself or state department had given assurances on the deal.

“We’re in extensive discussions with the Trump administration, with whom we have very strong links and ties at many levels – political, diplomatic, administrative, military and so forth.

“I am confident we will maintain the arrangements we have entered into with the previous administration. They are in the interests of both parties.”

Asked on ABC AM whether Trump blocking refugees from majority Muslim countries, including Syria, would scuttle the deal, Morrison referred the questions to the immigration minister, Peter Dutton.

He noted Dutton had made “very positive” comments about the deal’s prospects and commended him for what he said was a “very important” agreement.

“We have an arrangement, which we’ve been able to enter into, and obviously we’ll continue to work that arrangement,” the treasurer said.

“The president is the president of the United States, they will make the decisions as it applies to things on their side.

“But in the meantime, we will continue to pursue those arrangements.”

The vast majority of the people held in Australia’s offshore detention regime have been found to have a valid claim to refugee status because they have demonstrated a well-founded fear of persecution in their homelands and are legally owed protection.

The US resettlement deal is crucial to the Australian government’s plan to reduce the populations in and ultimately close its regional offshore detention centres.



Over the last three years the remote facilities have been plagued by reports of shocking conditions, poor management and deteriorating mental health of asylum seekers.

The Nauru files: cache of 2,000 leaked reports reveal scale of abuse of children in Australian offshore detention Read more

The Guardian’s publication of the Nauru files showed the devastating trauma and abuse inflicted on children on Nauru.

An asylum seeker was beaten to death by guards in a wave of unrest on Manus Island in February 2014, and on Nauru in May 2016 an asylum seeker self-immolated in front of staff from the UN high commission for refugees.

In April last year the detention centre on Manus Island was ruled “illegal and unconstitutional” by Papua New Guinea’s supreme court. However, the centre continues to operate, albeit with some minor cosmetic changes to the detention regimen, nearly 10 months later.