The first wave of refugees being held in Australian immigration camps will soon start to arrive in the United States under an Obama-era deal.
More than 1,000 refugees, who have been subjected to extreme vetting by U.S. officials, are seeking to resettle in the U.S. Australian Minister for Immigration and Border Protection Peter Dutton said in a statement Wednesday the process is moving along.
"The first group of refugees from Papua New Guinea and Nauru are expected to depart PNG and Nauru in coming weeks," Dutton said.
"The refugees will receive notification of the outcome of their application to resettle under the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program in coming days. Processing of other individuals continues and further decisions by U.S. authorities are expected in due course.
"The resettlement arrangement demonstrates the strength of Australia's relationship with the U.S. I want to thank the United States for their cooperation. We have a long history of working together on a range of global refugee and humanitarian issues."
President Donald Trump spoke with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull eight days after he was sworn into office and was critical of the immigration swap that would involve the U.S. accepting refugees from Australia and Australia taking Central American refugees being held in Costa Rica.
"This is going to kill me. I am the world’s greatest person that does not want to let people into the country," Trump said, according to a leaked transcript of the call. "And now I am agreeing to take 2,000 people and I agree I can vet them, but that puts me in a bad position. It makes me look so bad and I have only been here a week."
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