A deal between the United States and Australia to trade refugees housed at Guantanamo Bay for those held on the island nation of Nauru upends international refugee standards, Human Rights Watch said today.(visit the link for the full news article)
“Refugees are human beings, not products that countries can broker and trade,” said Bill Frelick, Refugee Policy director at Human Rights Watch. “The United States and Australia have signed a deal that bargains with lives and flouts international law.”
Under the deal announced on April 18, some 90 Sri Lankan and Burmese refugees now held at an Australian-run immigration detention camp on the Pacific island nation of Nauru would be sent to live in the United States. Up to 200 refugees could be sent each year. Australia, in turn, would take up to 200 Cuban and Haitian refugees held at the US Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
