Bye-Bye Australia

Australia is scrambling to save its agreement to resettle refugees in the US after Donald Trump raged publicly at “a dumb deal” and told the country’s prime minister Malcolm Turnbull in private it was the “worst deal ever”.

The US president took to Twitter late on Wednesday night in Washington to condemn the refugee swap and brand the asylum seekers held in camps on Nauru and Manus Island “illegal immigrants”.

[...]

The deal was confirmed by White House spokesman Sean Spicer, before being walked back hours later in a phone call from another presidential aide. It was then confirmed by the state department, and further by the US embassy in Canberra, before the president’s tweet cast grave doubt on whether the deal could progress.

Earlier in the day, the US state department had insisted the deal was on.

[...]

Both Australian-run detention camps have been the subject of sustained criticism by the UN, human rights groups and other nations over systemic sexual and physical abuse of those detained, including rapes, beatings, and the murder of one asylum seeker by guards; child sexual abuse; chronic rates of self-harm and suicide; dangerous levels of sustained mental illness, harsh conditions and inadequate medical treatment leading to several deaths.

The majority of the refugees held on the detention island by Australia – most for more than three years – are Iranian.

[...]

Trump, according to the Post report, accused Australia of seeking to export the “next Boston bombers”.

  Guardian

And here's the kicker:

The deal with Australia does not commit the US to unconditionally accepting any number of refugees from Australia’s offshore detention islands. The deal only commits the US to allowing refugees to “express an interest” in being resettled in America. Any, even all, refugees may be rejected during the “extreme vetting” process.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.