U.S.-Australia Deal Still in Doubt After Conflicting Statements
Contradictory statements from the Trump administration have cast fresh doubt on a U.S.-Australia refugee deal. The White House said it was still reviewing the deal despite weekend assurances that it would hold.
The Obama administration had agreed to resettle a group of refugees held at detention camps on the Pacific islands of Nauru and Manus. Australia has been paying for them to stay there as part of its ban on refugees and migrants arriving by sea.
The agreement appeared to hold despite a reportedly bad-tempered call over the weekend between President Donald Trump and Australia’s prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull. Turnbull says he told Trump the pair are both businessmen and “a deal is a deal.”
On Feb. 2, Trump tweeted: “Do you believe it? The Obama administration agreed to take thousands of illegal immigrants from Australia. Why? I will study this dumb deal!”
A White House spokesman said the administration was “continuing to review the deal.”
The State Department then said that previous comments from the White House still stood: “President Trump’s decision to honor the refugee agreement has not changed and spokesman [Sean] Spicer’s comments stand.”
Fiji Deportation Prevents Landmark Asylum Application
An Iranian refugee has been forced to return to Papua New Guinea from Fiji, rights groups said. Loghman Sawari, who spent three years in a refugee detention center on Manus, was deported before he could apply for asylum.
According to lawyer Aman Ravindra-Singh, Sawari flew to Fiji last week to apply for a protection visa. However, he was deported on Friday before he could lodge his application – which would have been the first requesting protection from a country to which Australia has been sending refugees. Australia’s harsh asylum policies have been criticized by the United Nations.
Fiji’s government said Sawari, 21, had failed to apply for asylum within his first 10 days, as was his legal obligation.
Argentina’s Macri Likened To Trump Over Migrant Order
Argentina’s president has signed an executive order aimed at discouraging foreign migrants from entering the country. The move has drawn comparisons between Mauricio Macri and Donald Trump, both real-estate tycoons.
The Macri order, signed last week without prior parliamentary approval, allows fast-track deportations and prevents those affected from returning to Argentina for at least eight years.
Macri’s government blames migrants from its northern neighbors, Bolivia and Paraguay, for drug-related crime.
“Peruvian and Paraguayan citizens come here and end up killing each other for control of the drug trade,” said Argentina’s security minister, Patricia Bullrich. “A lot of Paraguayans, Bolivians and Peruvians get involved as either capitalists or mules, as drivers or as part of the drug-trafficking chain.”
Evo Morales, Bolivia’s president, protested on Twitter: “We can’t be following the example of the north and its policies, building walls to divide us.”
Recommended Reads:
- The Guardian: Uncertainty Over U.S. Deal ‘Torturing’ Refugees in Australian Camps
- SBS: Father and Son Walk From Adelaide to Parliament House to Protest Offshore Detention
- The New York Times: The Life of a Refugee Questioned by Trump
- The Conversation: If the E.U. Wants to Be the Bastion of Liberal Democracy, It Too Must Stop Demonizing Refugees and Migrants