President-elect Donald Trump’s latest comments spell doom for Australian-US refugee deal

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s refugee resettlement plan received a stinging blow recently. The shocking revelation comes after President-elect Donald Trump vowed to stop the flow of refugees from the Middle East to the US.

Trump was addressing a rally of supporters in Cincinnati, Dec.1. During his speech, he called the refugee settlement programs “stupidly created by our very stupid politicians,” reports News.com.au.

Due to take charge in 50 days, the President-elect had said in a statement that he will suspend immigration from regions where it cannot be safely processed. Majority of the refugees living in the detention camps in Nauru and Manus are from Somalia, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan and Sri Lanka.

The ABC had recently reported quoting the White House that President-elect Donald Trump may scuttle the refugee resettlement deal with Australia. Reporters had enquired the White House Deputy Spokesperson on concerns regarding the screening process in the US Congress. They also asked if the deal meets President-elect Trump’s policy standards. In response to the queries, Eric Schultz said that Americans believe in one principle, one President at a time. “The President-elect Donald Trump will set the policies once he takes the oath of office," he said.

In the meantime, Australian prime minister is fully confident that Trump will keep the refugee deal, reported Al Jazeera. The country had signed a deal with the US to resettle refugees from Central America as part of its annual intake of 18,750 asylum seekers. In return, the US will resettle a substantial number of refugees from its offshore camps.

Malcolm Government had faced severe criticism for the deal from the opposition parties and the UN. The deal is a hasty one, the UN had said in the past. They didn’t expect Trump to win, it added.