REUTERS-Thousands of
protesters rallied across Australia on Saturday condemning U.S. President
Donald Trump's order temporarily barring refugees and nationals from
seven
countries and demanding an end to Australia's offshore detention of asylum
seekers.
U.S. ties with
Australia became strained on Thursday after details about an acrimonious phone
call between Trump and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull emerged and
Trump said a deal between the two nations on refugee resettlement was
"dumb."
About 1,000 people
gathered in Sydney to protest against Trump’s executive order on immigration
and to call on Australia to close its offshore processing centers on the tiny
Pacific Island of Nauru and Manus Island in Papua New Guinea.
Similar protests
were held in Canberra, Newcastle and Hobart, while hundreds attended an
anti-Trump rally in Melbourne on Friday.
Under the "dumb
deal", the United States would take up to 1,250 asylum seekers held on
Nauru and Manus. In return, Australia would take refugees from El Salvador,
Guatemala and Honduras.
Trump has
begrudgingly said he planned to stand by the deal, but a source told Reuters on
Friday U.S. immigration officials have postponed interviews with asylum seekers
on Nauru.
In Sydney,
protesters carried placards that said "Refugee torture, Australia's
shame" and "No walls, no camps, no bans".
"Australia
should not be trying to palm off people the government considers problems to
the U.S.A. We have the solution here," protester Beverley Fine, 62, told
Reuters.
Trump's executive
order last week suspended the U.S. refugee program for 120 days and stopped
visits by travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries Iran, Iraq, Libya,
Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen for 90 days.
A U.S. federal judge
on Friday put a nationwide block on Trump's executive order, although his
administration could still have the policy put back into effect on appeal.
REUTERS
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