Australian Immigration Daily News

Is it at all possible for things to get any crazier than we've seen in the last news cycle?

First we had reports that the "delightful" Trump had raised significant questions about whether the United States would abide by the agreement that was made between the Turnbull Government and the Obama Administration to resettle the asylum seekers who have been held in detention on Manus Island and Nauru.

According to news reports Trump apparently, in his inimitable style, threw a "temper tantrum" when Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull apparently tried to seek assurances about whether the Trump regime would abide by the agreement. The reports indicate that Trump ended a call that was supposed to last for an hour after 25 minutes (reading between the lines it seems perfectly obvious that in accordance with well established protocols of diplomacy between close allies, Trump hung up the phone on the Prime Minister).

Trump was also reported to have described the phone conversation with Prime Minister Turnbull as "the worst call ever" with world leaders (worse of course than his conversation with that renowned advocate of human rights Putin!) and to have referred to the resettlement agreement as "the worst deal ever".

Trump also put out a "tweet" which said: "Do you believe it? The Obama Administration agreed to take thousands of illegal immigrants from Australia. Why? I will study this dumb deal". (Forgetting the small detail that the actual number of asylum seekers who would be resettled is only about 1,250 people.

Trump was also have reported to have accused Australia of seeking to export the next "Boston bombers" to America (even though there is not a shred of evidence that any of the asylum seekers who would be resettled in the US have any relationship to terrorist organisations!).

Finally, Trump was said  to have grudgingly accepted that he would be bound to accept an agreement that was made by Australia with the Obama Administration (shocking concept that the United States should be good for its word!). 

Nonetheless, Trump's press secretary, Sean Spicer, was quoted as saying that "The President is unbelievably disappointed in the previous administration's "deal" and how poorly it was crafted and the threat to national security it put the United States on".

And Spicer went on to say that the asylum seekers would be subjected to "a very very extreme vetting process", whatever that means. 

To add insult to injury after this total fiasco, the press secretary was reported to have repeatedly mispronounced the Prime Minister's name, referring to him as "Mr Trunbull". (Perhaps Wikipedia is not working on the White House's computer system, or perhaps they don't know how to look up "Prime Minister of Australia"!)

It still remains to be seen how many if any of the asylum seekers on Nauru and Manus will make it through the very very extreme vetting process and will be able to be settled in the US.

In the meantime, they remain trapped in detention, where they have been held for years.

The only word that can be used to describe this situation is "tragic", and that is far far from adequate.