US will honour Australia asylum seekers deal

The United States has confirmed that it will be going through with a plan to resettle asylum seekers from Australia that President Donald Trump had once described as “dumb”.

The deal, which was agreed under Barack Obama, allows up to 1,250 asylum seekers in Australia to resettle in the US. In return, Australia has agreed to resettle people from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador who have sought asylum in the US.

US Vice President Mike Pence told a joint news conference with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull that the deal would be subject to vetting, and that honouring it “doesn’t mean that we admire the agreement”.

“We will honour this agreement out of respect to this enormously important alliance,” Pence said.

Australia has refused to accept the 1,250 asylum seekers, most of whom are men from Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan and instead holds them in offshore detention camps on the South Pacific nations of Nauru and Papua New Guinea. If the men are found to be refugees, they are resettled outside Australia, in Papua New Guinea, Nauru or Cambodia.

Human rights groups have warned that conditions in the detention camps are unhygienic, too hot and lacking facilities, and over 100 former camp employees have demanded that they be shut down.

Over 2,000 documents leaked last year revealed widespread abuse and trauma, including sexual assault, at the Nauru camp but the Australian government said that many reports were “unconfirmed allegations”.

Last year a Papua New Guinea court ruled against one of the camps, prompting Australia to agree to close it. However, it remains open.