Dozens of refugees leave Nauru for resettlement in US

Four more families of refugees and a cohort of single men have left immigration camps on Nauru to start new lives in the United States.

The group of 29, including eight children, who flew off the island nation on Sunday, is the fifth cohort to leave Nauru under Australia’s refugee resettlement deal with the US.

They included two Sri Lankan families, one Rohingyan family, one Afghan family and single men from Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Pakistan, refugee advocates said.

Since resettlements under the deal started in September, 139 refugees have left Nauru and 85 from Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island.

However, the Refugee Action Coalition said it was remarkable there were no Iranian, Somali or Sudanese refugees among those who have left this year, despite Australian Border Force officials denying any particular nationalities were banned from resettling in the US.

RAC spokesman Ian Rintoul said US officials were expected to remain in Nauru for another couple of weeks but had not yet scheduled any new vetting interviews for another round of refugees.

Under the deal Australia reached with the previous Obama administration – derided by the now US president, Donald Trump – the US agreed to take up to 1,250 refugees from the offshore detention centres.