{"id":4040,"date":"2015-11-02T18:10:24","date_gmt":"2015-11-02T18:10:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/?p=4040"},"modified":"2015-11-02T18:10:24","modified_gmt":"2015-11-02T18:10:24","slug":"australia-talking-with-philippine-government-to-resettle-refugees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/?p=4040","title":{"rendered":"Australia talking with Philippine government to resettle refugees"},"content":{"rendered":"

It has been reported by Rappler.com<\/strong> that Australia is talking with the Philippine government to send refugees there, but refused to confirm reports of a AU$150 million (PHP4.5 billion) deal to expand its controversial resettlement policy.<\/p>\n

Under Australia’s hardline policy to stop asylum-seeker boats reaching its shores, those arriving by sea are denied resettlement in Australia, even if found to be genuine refugees.<\/p>\n

They are sent to much-criticized camps in the Pacific island nations of Nauru and Papua New Guinea. In recent months, Australia has been seeking new countries to where refugees could be resettled.<\/p>\n

A front-page report in The Daily Telegraph said Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop had agreed the deal with her Philippine counterpart in New York and that it was awaiting sign-off by Philippine President Benigno Aquino III.<\/p>\n

“We have had bilateral discussions with other countries, including the Philippines at an official and ministerial level over a number of months. The foreign minister obviously spoke with her counterpart in New York recently,” Immigration Minister Peter Dutton told reporters.<\/p>\n

“I am not going to publicly comment in relation to where some of the negotiations are at. I think we’re best to discuss those issues in private with those partners,” said Minister Julie Bishop.<\/p>\n

Philippine DFA confirms discussions<\/p>\n

In a statement, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) confirmed a meeting between Bishop and Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario.<\/p>\n

DFA spokesman Charles Jose said their meeting “covered many areas of our bilateral relations, with particular focus on our working for a comprehensive partnership.”<\/p>\n

“The global discourse on the issue of migration and refugees was also discussed in the context of how each country is finding ways to fulfil its international obligation,” Jose said.<\/p>\n

Canberra has already struck a deal with Cambodia to accept refugees in exchange for millions of dollars in aid over the next 4 years.<\/p>\n

Only 4 asylum-seekers have so far opted to take up the offer of a new life in impoverished Cambodia, while the deal itself has been condemned by [human] rights groups.<\/p>\n

“We will continue the negotiations [with the Philippines] because there is good faith on both sides,” Dutton said.<\/p>\n

“If we can strike an agreement that is in the best interests of our country and from the Philippines’ perspective, their country, we will arrive at that point.”<\/p>\n

It has been more than a year since a boat carrying asylum-seekers arrived in Australia and Canberra has declared its hardline policy a success, despite intense criticism from human rights groups.<\/p>\n

Before it was introduced, boats were arriving almost daily, with hundreds drowning in the high seas.<\/p>\n

Bishop’s office would not confirm the report on the Philippines deal, but a spokeswoman said the two governments had “long cooperated on irregular migration, people-smuggling and human trafficking.” \u2014\u00a0(Agence France-Presse<\/strong>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It has been reported by Rappler.com that Australia is talking with the Philippine government to send refugees there, but refused to confirm reports of a AU$150 million (PHP4.5 billion) deal to expand its controversial resettlement policy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,45,49],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4040"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4040\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}