Refugees on Manus Island and Nauru pessimistic US will take them as Australia scrambles to save arrangement Trump described as ‘dumb’

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

The back and forth between the Australian and US governments over the deal to resettle refugees from Manus Island and Nauru is “torturing” those at the centre of the confusion.

While the Australian government scrambles to save the arrangement which could mark the end of its offshore processing stalemate, refugees and asylum seekers have said they don’t think the US will take them in.

Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) Do you believe it? The Obama Administration agreed to take thousands of illegal immigrants from Australia. Why? I will study this dumb deal!

When the deal was announced in November there were mixed reactions among those on Manus and Nauru, but many welcomed the chance to resettle in the US. One man, who is on Nauru with his wife and young daughter, told Guardian Australia at the time that after four years in detention it was the “best news” they had received.

Their time in Nauru included alleged assaults and an incident of alleged sexual assault against their daughter.

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The family had met with US officials regarding their resettlement application, and were scheduled for a second meeting this month. However amid the confusion that meeting has been downgraded to a standing unscheduled request.

Now, he told Guardian Australia, “when they don’t like us we don’t like to go”.

“We were happy – but not now,” he said. “Nobody knows what is [Trump’s] plan. We just want freedom from here and Trump has a plan after four months. Maybe after one or two years he’ll tell us if he wants us or no. We all have stress about this and we are tired and sad.”

Prior to the US presidential election the former US administration agreed to consider resettling what is now known to be 1,250 refugees from the Australian run immigration camps on Nauru and Manus Island. However an executive order from Trump last week, suspending the refugee program and banning some nationalities from migrating or travelling to the US, has left its future in doubt.

Conflicting statements and reports have also cast doubt. On Thursday Trump tweeted it was a “dumb deal” and labelled those affected as “illegal immigrants”, despite the White House saying it would go ahead.

Behrouz Boochani, an Iranian journalist detained on Manus Island, said most people wanted to go to the US but there had always been a level of scepticism and distrust.

He said the ongoing questions around the deal had been “torturing people”, and Trump’s tweet left them sure that “nothing will happen”.

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“That doesn’t mean people are not upset and disappointed, but that we are released from a deal that we didn’t know anything about and they did not give us any details about.”

He said it was clear Trump disagreed with the deal and the Australian government had to figure out what to do next.

“This policy has been defeated and it’s time to solve the problem by taking people to Australia or to accept New Zealand’s offer,” he said.

The majority of refugees and asylum seekers on Manus and Nauru are Iranian, one of the seven countries affected by Trump’s travel ban.

Should the suspensions be lifted in four months, Iranians and citizens from the other six countries will have to undergo “extreme vetting”, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said.

Among the hypotheticals surrounding the deal, it has not been revealed by the Australian government what would happen to those who do not pass the vetting process.

The Australian government has previously indicated it was in talks with other third-party countries about resettling refugees, but it has also rejected an offer from New Zealand on the opinion it would allow people smugglers to advertise a back-door route to Australia.

The Australian Department of Immigration and Border Protection has been contacted for comment.