Officials from the US Department of Homeland Security visited Manus Island to fingerprint and photograph refugees for potential resettlement under the US-Australia refugee deal. Details of the deal, including what the ‘extreme vetting’ promised by President Donald Trump entails, remain unclear.
On an official visit to Papua New Guinea, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull endorsed the Manus Island detention centre closing by the end of the year. Neither he nor PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill gave further information on the process for the closure. Australian immigration minister Peter Dutton later clarified that refugees not accepted by the US would be settled in PNG and non-refugees would be returned to their home countries.
Amnesty International released a report accusing Spanish company Ferrovial and its Australian subsidiary Broadspectrum of failing to meet human rights obligations in running Australia’s offshore processing centres. Broadspectrum’s $2.5 billion contract with the Australian government ends in October.
The Administrative Appeals Tribunal ruled against fully disclosing many documents on Australia’s asylum seeker boat turnback operations, sought by The Guardian under freedom of information laws. Some previously classified documents were released during the legal proceedings.