U.N. Says Australia Reneged on Pledge to Accept Some Refugees
In a statement on Monday, the commissioner, Filippo Grandi, said the United Nations agency had agreed in November to help with the relocation to the United States of refugees in detention centers on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea
and on the island nation of Nauru after Washington agreed to take in hundreds of refugees being held by Australia at those centers.
By JACQUELINE WILLIAMSJULY 24, 2017
SYDNEY, Australia — The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has accused the Australian government of reneging on a "clear understanding"
that some refugees detained offshore who have close family ties in Australia could be resettled in the country.
But the commissioner said the agency had recently been told by the Australian government
that it would not be accepting those refugees and that they, and others on Nauru and Manus, would have to remain at the detention centers or be transferred to Cambodia or to the United States.
Grandi said that We agreed to do so on the clear understanding
that vulnerable refugees with close family ties in Australia would ultimately be allowed to settle there,
But the agency did so, Mr. Grandi said, on the condition that some refugees would be resettled in Australia.
