While thousands of individuals from around the world became Australian citizens on Thursday, the roughly 1200 asylum-seekers on Nauru and Manus Island who have been denied that opportunity got some bad news. US President Donald Trump signed an executive order establishing a new refugee policy halting admissions from Syria and suspending it from other majority-Muslim countries until the administration decides vetting procedures.
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It's still unclear how the new executive order will be implemented and over what time-frame, but it's likely to delay or scupper altogether the agreement to resettle the Manus and Nauru asylum-seekers (most of whom hail from the Middle East, Pakistan, Iran and Sudan and Somalia) in the US. Under the terms of the agreement reached between the Turnbull government and the Obama administration last September, Australia was to have resettled a similar number of Central American refugees marooned in camps in Costa Rica.
Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce responded to news of Mr Trump's new executive order by claiming it wouldn't be "the end of the world" if the Australia-US agreement collapsed. It was an extraordinarily insensitive remark given some asylum-seekers have been detained on Manus and Nauru for more than three years and that they now face many more months in legal limbo.
Mr Joyce's flippant remark is in keeping with the Coalition's stubborn and unyielding attitude to asylum-seekers – underlined by its decision to legislate a lifetime visa ban on people who have arrived by boat since July 2013. Polls appear to suggest many Australians support that stance. It's unlikely, however, that they condone what amounts to indefinite administrative detention in conditions that breach the detainees' human rights and which have given rise to sickness, self-harm, physical assault and even death.
Last year, the PNG supreme court ordered the government to take immediate steps to close the Manus Island centre. Nearly 12 months later, however, it has no idea of when its ruling will be implemented. And the government's obsession with concealing its legal and administrative hand means ordinary Australians have only the vaguest notion of the detainees' likely fate. What is known is that the Coalition government refused resettlement offers from New Zealand and several other countries, presumably because discussions with the Obama administration for an asylum-seeker swap were already well advanced.
A wholesale swap was always a risky proposition, especially given the Obama presidency's short shelf life in 2016. And even though it looked like Mr Obama would be succeeded by fellow Democrat Hillary Clinton, no incoming President wants to be bound by deals devised by his or her predecessor, particularly on sensitive issues such as refugee resettlement.
Even if the swap had looked a sure bet, the Coalition ought to have investigated alternatives. It's apparent failure to do so hints at administrative incompetence. Worse, it indicates an appalling disregard for the rights of people who've committed no crime but have been locked up anyway. Their resettlement must be accorded urgent priority.
