US Vetting of Nauru Refugees Continues After Trump's Talks With Australian PM

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — On Thursday, Australia's Immigration and Border Protection Minister Peter Dutton said the United States had put a temporary stop to vetting refugees on Nauru, a week after US President Donald Trump reportedly criticized a US-Australian agreement to resettle 1,250 refugees from Nauru in the United States.

"Initial pre-screening interviews of refugees referred for resettlement consideration on Nauru were not suspended," the official said. "The interviews by a team from the Department of State's Resettlement Support Center concluded this week as planned."

The news comes after Trump spoke with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and slammed the former administration of Barack Obama for concluding an agreement with Australia on resettling refugees into the United States. Trump reportedly told Turnbull the conversation was the worst he had that day among other calls with foreign leaders and vowed to scrutinize the agreement.

In November 2016, Washington and Canberra concluded a deal on resettling migrants from Australia’s detention facilities to the United States.

The Washington-Canberra resettlement deal is expected to affect the immigrants kept on the islands of Nauru and Papua New Guinea's Manus. The refugees are usually kept in the two centers while their applications are being processed by the Australian authorities.