The arrangement was the subject of a testy phone call between Donald Trump and Malcolm Turnbull.Credit:Bloomberg,Alex Ellinghausen
There are hopes the US could expand the agreement - which Donald Trump honoured - after President Joe Biden increased the US’s annual refugee intake to 62,500 earlier this month.
Australia’s Department of Home Affairs noted this quota included 6000 people from East Asia,which includes Australia’s regional processing cohort.
“The United States and Australia remain fully committed to the resettlement arrangement and maximising the number of refugees resettled,” Home Affairs said in a statement.
A spokesman for the US State Department said it continued to honour the deal but “we have no new announcements concerning this agreement”.
To date,940 refugees have been resettled in the US under the deal,including 34 this year. The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre said another 258 refugees had been provisionally approved for resettlement but were still waiting to travel.
The Sun-Herald andThe Sunday Age are aware of refugees who had interviews booked with US officials around the onset of the pandemic last year which were cancelled but never rescheduled.
The ASRC was not able to say how many people were in this category but its advocacy director Jana Favero urged the Morrison government to ensure the process was working as efficiently as possible.