Another group of asylum seekers held in an abandoned Australian detention center on Papua New Guinea (PNG) is scheduled to be resettled in the United States.
The group, comprising 58 asylum seekers, is the third and largest group to be given US resettlement under a refugee swap deal.
The group was to leave for the US on Tuesday. The resettlement ends a three-month hiatus in the swap deal.
Australia agreed on the deal with Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, back in late 2016. Under the deal, up to 1,250 refugees held in the Australian camps would be offered residency. In return, Australia agreed to resettle several dozen Central American refugees.
US President Donald Trump, who has strong anti-immigrant sentiments, had described the Obama-era deal as a “dumb” deal; however, he said he would honor the deal despite his early misgivings.
The 58 men departing for the US are mostly from Afghanistan and Pakistan kept on Manus Island.
Manus…