Last four remaining refugee children on Nauru leave for US

The last four remaining refugee children on Nauru have left the Pacific island to be resettled in the US, government confirms.

Daily Telegraph. Nauru Day 4. 2018 Pacific Islands Forum Nauru. Refugee men walk near the entry gate of detention camp 2 which houses single men. Pic Nathan Edwards

All refugee children have been taken off Nauru after the remaining four minors were flown to the United States with their families.

A government spokeswoman confirmed to The Australian the plane of 19 refugees departed for the US this afternoon, in a development set to be seized on by Scott Morrison and his senior ministers.

The Refugee Action Coalition earlier reported the 19 refugees, including children, left Nauru today while another 22 Manus refugees flew from Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea yesterday under the US resettlement deal.

“As with yesterday’s flight from PNG, today’s Nauru flight to the US includes Iranians, 14 in all, including the two families with the last four children, among the 19 refugees leaving Nauru today,’’ the coalition’s spokesman Ian Rintoul said.

“Iranians, Somalis, Sudanese, Iraqi and Syrians were among the nationalities that had been excluded from being accepted by the US for the last year.”

The Prime Minister said on Friday the last four children “have their bags packed” and were ready to leave after his government came under mounting pressure to get them off Nauru.

The US agreed to take up to 1250 refugees from Nauru and Manus Island under a pact made between former president Barack Obama and former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, which has been honoured by Donald Trump.

“Certainly with the United States, where we have an arrangement where more than 450 people have already been transferred to the United States and as you know, the last four children who are on Nauru already have their bags packed, ready to go to the United States,” Mr Morrison said last week while in New Zealand.

“That remaining cohort of people, whether it’s on Nauru or Manus, is about the 1000 mark, the majority of those that are on Manus Island. The process of engaging with the United States will continue and many are still engaged in that process. But ultimately it is up to the United States who they decide to take and who they don’t. They are no more a passive participant in that process than anyone else would be.”

As of Monday last week there were 431 people on Nauru, including 330 refugees, and 584 people on Manus Island, 330 of whom were refugees.

The Australian revealed last November the government planned to have all children of asylum-seekers still on Nauru relocated to Australia by year’s end.