US officials stop vetting Nauru refugees for resettlement

CANBERRA, Australia (AP/Daily Mail) /9 February 2017 - U.S. officials stopped screening refugees for potential resettlement in the United States this week but will return to the Pacific atoll of Nauru to continue working toward a deal that President Donald Trump has condemned as “dumb,” an Australian minister said Thursday.   

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton would not say when U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials would return to Nauru to conduct what Trump describes as “extreme vetting.”   

Trump made enhanced screening a condition for agreeing to honor an Obama administration deal to accept up to 1,250 refugees refused entry into Australia. Australia pays Nauru and Papua New Guinea to keep more than 2,000 asylum seekers — mostly from Iran, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka — in conditions condemned by rights groups.