New York: The Trump White House has publicly confirmed they will honour a deal struck by the Obama administration to take more than a thousand refugees from Australia's offshore detention centres, but said any people considered by the United States for resettlement would be subject to "extreme vetting".
President Donald Trump's press secretary, Sean Spicer, confirmed the deal would "go forward" and for the first time revealed that it would involve 1250 refugees, leaving as many as 800 people settled outside Australian immigration detention camps in limbo.
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US confirms refugee resettlement
The US has revealed just how many refugees housed in Australia's offshore detention centres it will resettle, but only after conducting extreme vetting.
The comments came during the daily White House press briefing on Tuesday afternoon in Washington, just days after a phone between Prime Malcolm Turnbull and the new president.
"Part of the deal is they have to be vetted in the same manner that we are doing now. There will be extreme vetting applied to all of them," Mr Spicer said.
"That is part and parcel of the deal that was made. It was made by the Obama administration with the full backing of the United States government."
"The President, in accordance with that deal, to honour what had been agreed upon by the United States government, and ensuring that that vetting will take place, in the same manner that we're doing now, will go forward."
There were fears that a recent executive order signed by Mr Trump, placing a temporary ban on refugees entering the United States as well as travel restrictions for people from seven Muslim-majority countries, would prevent the asylum seekers being held on Manus Island and Nauru from being accepted for resettlement.
The White House numbers align with federal government figures showing there are 380 people held on Nauru and 866 held on Manus Island, but refugee advocates say hundreds would left in limbo if they are found not to meet US security standards.
![White House press secretary Sean Spicer said the refugee deal with Australia would go ahead.](/web/20170131221646im_/http://www.canberratimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/2/o/4/8/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gu2nzl.png/1485899376814.jpg)
Both Papua New Guinea and Nauru have moved some former immigration detainees into the community.
Some of the group are from the seven countries named in executive order, including Iran, Iraq and Somalia.
![Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Minister for Immigration Peter Dutton at a press conference in Canberra on Monday.](/web/20170131221646im_/http://www.canberratimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/1/j/9/z/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gu2nzl.png/1485899376814.jpg)
Mr Spicer did not take a follow-up question on the deal and did not elaborate on the process of "extreme vetting" that would take place before resettlements occur.
The Turnbull government has previously indicated it is talking to regional partners about finding a permanent home for refugees not settled in the US.
Processing for the deal by US immigration and Homeland Security officials is more advanced on Nauru, with application interviews and security vetting continuing last week. No interviews have taken place on Manus Island.
Refugee Action Coalition spokesman Ian Rintoul said the announcement would add to anxiety for those people held by Australia.
"This is a number that is not going to guarantee resettlement of all those people who have found to be refugees on Nauru and Manus, so the government has been rather loose with the truth," he said.
"There is now a very serious question over the length of time this process will take. It looks like even people who have been found to be refugees will wait for another year or even longer."
He said there was no transparency on Nauru about how selection for secondary interviews was made.
"Almost everyone on Nauru has put in applications but not everyone is being spoken to. There's already a very high level of anxiety about how that process is playing out," Mr Rintoul said.
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