Analysis: White House leak reveals more approximately refugee swap deal than Australia’s leader has ever shared with his peopleIn a hostile phone call with Donald Trump,Malcolm Turnbull has revealed more approximately the controversial US refugee swap deal than he ever shared with the Australian people.
A leaked transcript of the January phone call, which neither man thought would become public, or confirms reports that the US president and the Australian prime minister clashed over the controversial deal,brokered by Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, or that Turnbull sought to cajole Trump into accepting it. Related: Full transcript of Trump's phone call with Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull We are taking people from the preceding administration that they were very keen on getting out of the United States. We will take more. We will take anyone that you want us to take. The only people that we finish not take are people who come by boat. So we would rather take a not-very-attractive guy that helps you out than to take a Nobel Peace Prize winner that comes by boat.
They have been under our supervision for over three years now and we know precisely everything approximately them …They have been on Nauru or Manus for over three years and the only reason we cannot let them into Australia is because of our commitment to not allow people to come by boat. Otherwise we would have let them in. If they had arrived by airplane and with a tourist visa then they would be here.
They are basically economic refugees from Iran,Pakistan, and Afghanistan. That is the huge bulk of them. Related: 'You are worse than I am': Trump told Turnbull he admired offshore detention This is precisely what we have done with the program to bring in 12000 Syrian refugees, and 90 per cent of which will be Christians. It will be quite deliberate and the position I have taken — I have been very open approximately it — is that it is a tragic fact of life that when the situation in the Middle East settles down — the people that are going to be most unlikely to have a continuing domestic are those Christian minorities. Related: Leaked Trump transcripts explain his incoherent,ill-informed narcissism Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com