Affairs Committee: Vetting Refugees and Border Protection

affairs committee: Australia pays Nauru and Papua New Guinea to keep more than 2,000 asylum seekers - mostly from Iran, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka - in conditions condemned by rights groups, according to CTV. Mike Pezzullo, secretary of Australia's Department of Immigration and Border Protection, told a Senate committee that U.S. Department of Homeland Security officers were poised to start vetting refugees on the islands as soon as they were authorized. Trump has reluctantly agreed to honour an Obama administration deal to accept up to 1,250 refugees refused entry into Australia, but has said they will be subjected to extreme vetting. Pezzullo told the Legal and constitutional Affairs Committee he was confident there would be movement within the next few, several months. Committee member Senator Nick McKim, who described Trump as insane, questioned how Pezzulo could have confidence in that time frame, given the White House was in absolute disarray. The present administration's made it clear they are currently looking at their vetting thresholds, Pezzullo said. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.