Australian PM “Confident” Trump Will Not Back Out of Refugee Swap
Refugee exchange deal it seems unlikely Trump will embrace
In 2013 Australia wisely passed legislation that establishes the refusal of admittance to all refugees who arrive in Australia by boat. But they keep on coming, so now Australia has over a thousand Muslim refugees from Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Africa, and Asia that it won’t admit to its country.
Australia is currently housing them in holding facilities on surrounding islands; the Obama administration has agreed to take in these refugees and “resettle” them here in America.
However, the current White House has since signaled that President-elect Trump may not want to follow through on accepting refugees that Australia refuses to accept into their homeland. The White House might be right.
The Australian PM, however, is confident that once president, Trump will not back out of the deal.
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said on Sunday he was confident a refugee resettlement deal with the United States would go ahead, despite White House comments which seemed to cast doubt about its future under a Trump Administration.
White House deputy spokesman Eric Schultz told reporters the deal to resettle in the U.S refugees currently held at Australian-funded offshore processing centres was reached with President Barack Obama, and it was the prerogative of each president to set policies.
“We have one President at a time, Schultz said on Friday. “The President-elect, Donald Trump, will set the policies once he takes the oath of office.”
Turnbull downplayed the comments when questioned by reporters in Sydney on Sunday.
“It’s a very good arrangement and we are confident that we’ll continue through the change of administration,” the Australian Associated Press quoted him saying.
Australia announced last month the Obama administration had agreed to take a substantial number of the 1,200 refugees held on Nauru and Manus Island in Papua New Guinea.
The resettlement deal with United States came after Turnbull agreed in September to take part in a U.S.-led programme to resettle refugees from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador as part of Australia’s annual intake of 18,750 asylum seekers.
In essence, then, this is a refugee swap. President-elect Trump’s thoughts on this are not yet being reported, but Prime Minister Turnbull might be a bit too optimistic on this deal standing.
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Comments
In the phrase “the art of the deal”, the “art” part comes into play when one manages to avoid the really bad deals.
That guy is funny.
Ahhhhh, but here’s the money, kids: “the Obama administration has agreed to take in these refugees…”
Tell me, did any of this go through Congress?? Mr. P.M., that is whom you should be worried about. Lest you forget, our Presidents are not kings, no matter how much they would like to style themselves so.