Immigration Minister Peter Dutton expects refugees at Australia's offshore processing centres on Manus Island and Nauru to be resettled in the United States within "a couple of months", but concedes the US may take less than the 1250 it indicated.
Mr Dutton has also confirmed for the first time that the deal was something of a quid pro quo, insisting that Australia would only fulfil its pledge to take Central American refugees if the US holds up its end of the bargain.
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Refugee deal to start in 'months'
The Nauru and Manus Island transfers to the US are due start in 'a couple of months', says Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, despite hesitations from US President Donald Trump.
The arrangement with the US to accept refugees who tried to reach Australia by boat – a deal struck by the Turnbull government with the Obama administration – has been subject to a great deal of doubt under US President Donald Trump and his commitment to "extreme vetting".
But Mr Dutton said he was confident Australia could take Mr Trump at his word and expected transfers to start within the next "couple" of months, sooner than the six to 12 months that had been suggested by some on the islands.
"All of the signs indicate the [US] officials are working well. It's the case that we take the US at its word. We appreciate the support of President Trump to continue the arrangement," he told Sky News on Tuesday.
Asked by host Andrew Bolt when people would commence resettlement in the US, Mr Dutton said: "I think we'll have movement in the not too distant future … in the next couple of months."
Despite agreeing to honour the arrangement to take up to 1250 refugees, Mr Trump has promised to subject every person to "extreme vetting", which refugee advocates have suggested could be used to restrict the numbers.
Mr Dutton told Sky News the US would take "1200 or whatever it turns out to be".
![Transfers to the US to begin soon, says Peter Dutton.](/web/20170224181005im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/b/r/1/x/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gui5s2.png/1487800145454.jpg)
Asked if the deal could be characterised as a "quid pro quo" arrangement in relation to the Turnbull government's promise to accept a cohort of Central American refugees currently awaiting resettlement in camps in Costa Rica, Mr Dutton insisted the US must first uphold its end of the bargain.
"It wasn't a people swap deal if that's the language people want to use [but] I don't have any problem with that characterisation if people want to put that," he said. "It was beneficial to us and it was beneficial to US."
![If transfers do begin shortly, it will be in advance of the timetable indicated by sources on Manus Island and Nauru.](/web/20170224181005im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/r/l/y/r/8/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gui5s2.png/1487800145454.jpg)
However, Mr Dutton indicated Australia would not be prepared to take any of the Central American refugees until transfers had begun from Manus Island and Nauru. He said he wanted to avoid a replay of the so-called Malaysian solution, in which Labor took in 4000 refugees from that country but was left unable to send 800 refugees in return.
"We're not going to be sucked in to that sort of a silly outcome," Mr Dutton told Sky News. "We wouldn't take anyone until we had assurances that people were going to go off Nauru and Manus."
![US President Donald Trump recanted his pledge to review the "dumb deal".](/web/20170224181005im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/9/p/z/o/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gui5s2.png/1487800145454.jpg)
Mr Dutton and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull have repeatedly and explicitly rejected suggestions there was a people swap arrangement since the Costa Rica offer was formally made late in 2016.
Labor's defence spokesman Richard Marles said "clearly this was a deal" and accused the government of playing politics and being misleading about the nature of the resettlement arrangement.
"Quid pro quo. One for the other. That is what happened last year. That is evidently what occurred and yet we've had a government that has been denying that from day one. This is a government that has lacked transparency across the board since it was elected in 2013," Mr Marles told Sky News.
If transfers do begin shortly, it will be in advance of the timetable indicated by sources on Manus Island and Nauru. US officials have conducted interviews on both islands and, according to some refugees, were telling applicants the process could take six to 12 months.
Following a tense phone call with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Mr Trump pledged to review the "dumb deal" to take Australia's refugees, but later recanted and said he would honour his predecessor's arrangement.
Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop is in Washington to meet with Vice-President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. But Mr Dutton said there would be no need to discuss the refugee deal "in great detail" because it was already locked down.
Asked if she considered arrangements with the US as a "people swap deal", Ms Bishop said, "no, I would not".
"That's not the way I would categorise it. Australia is a very generous nation when it comes to resettling those who are found to be refugees from all over the world. We'll continue to do so."