Transcript
IAN RINTOUL: 1250 was never enough to cover, you know, all the refugees on Manus and Nauru and we said that from 2016, from the first announcement of the deal, that it would still leave hundreds of people without any kind of refugee resettlement. The second is that it's now clear that the US is not going to accept anything like 1250, it's actually going to be more in the realm of 600, maybe 650, maybe 700 tops, I think, although there's still some people on Manus who haven't been interviewed. And then on top of that, you've got the numbers of rejections. So, we've already got a large number of refugees who were never going to be taken to the US and now we've got 300 who have been being rejected. So overall, you've got, several hundred people now who were never going to fit with the US deal. I mean, it's interesting that the Australian government has now admitted that. It's something that it had denied or tried to avoid even from the very beginning of the deal. But now that it's a very public admission that the US deal is seriously flawed, the pressure is on the Australian government to provide resettlement options. It's the reason that we've argued from the outset that people on Manus and Nauru should be brought to Australia.
MACKENZIE SMITH: Do you think that's likely to happen though? I mean, now that it's maybe as you say, revealed this deal was flawed might it look elsewhere? How do you see the government kind of approaching this?
IR: They'll continue to do what they've done so far, and that's to put their head in the sand. There are no other third countries, that must be very apparent to the government after six years of attempting to find other third countries. The only offer that is available is the Zealand offer of 150 people and so far, the government has rejected that offer. But there are no other countries in the globe that are about to take refugees that are the responsibility of Australia. Most of the other resettling countries that they might talk to are already taking large numbers of people sometimes beyond their own quota. So, it's a myth that the government's going to find another country. There are only two options, one is to accept New Zealand of 150, that would still leave perhaps 400, 500 people in need of places. So ultimately, the Australian government has really got no alternative other than to bring people from Manus and Nauru to Australia.
