Despite the threat of COVID infection, 35 refugees from Manus Island have left Port Moresby today (Thursday 21 May) to fly via South Korea and Los Angeles, to finally be resettled in the United States.
They will join another seven refugees from Manus Island who had been transferred to Australia for medical treatment under the Medevac Bill, left Australia to be resettled in the United States on Tuesday 19 May.
The refugees will arrive in the United States almost seven years since they first came to Christmas Island seeking protection from Australia. Ironically, they will arrive in the United States to face the very real risk of COVID-19 infection.
Today’s transfer will bring the total number of Manus refugees so far resettled in the United Sates to just 350. Around 180 refugees remain in limbo in Papua New Guinea, with about 70 of them still waiting for answers to their application for US resettlement.
Another 220 refugees and asylum seekers are still languishing in Nauru.
The US resettlement deal was originally negotiated in 2016, with the suggestion that up to 1250 refugees would be resettled under the deal. But after four years, only around 720 refugees had been accepted by the United States.
“The US deal has always been a cruel hoax. The US was never going to accept 1250 refugees. Hundreds of people who need protection are still waiting in PNG and Nauru after almost seven years. Hundreds of other refugees are imprisoned in hotels and detention centres in Australia,” said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition.
“It is a cruelest of ironies that forty-two refugees are being sent to the United States supposedly for safe resettlement, but are arriving in a country where the coronavirus is running rampant and unemployment has hit Depression levels. The seven from Australia should have been granted visas to stay in Australia, where the COVID risk is nowhere near as great.
“More than 100 previously resettled refugees have lost their jobs in US the past few weeks while many others in precarious circumstances are seeking help from welfare agencies and refugee supporters in the United States.
“It shows a particular disregard for the refugees’ welfare that Australia should send refugees to such an uncertain fate in the United States.
“The US deal is all but finished, and the Australian government has no other resettlement arrangements.
“There is no alternative. All those still waiting in PNG and on Nauru should be brought to Australia and granted the permanent protection they asked for in 2013. The refugees from Manus and Nauru being held in closed detention in Australia must be immediately released.”
For more information, contact Ian Rintoul 0417 275 713
