The first group of refugees to be resettled in the US will be told in the coming days.
After years in limbo on Manus Island and Nauru, some refugees will soon know whether they will be moving to the US to start a new life.
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has confirmed US authorities will begin handing out resettlement decisions in the next few days with the first group to leave in coming weeks.
He says the processing of other individuals continues and further decisions by US authorities are expected in due course.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has thanked the US President for honouring the deal that was struck last year with Barack Obama.
"The first group of refugees from Papua New Guinea and Nauru is expected to depart for the United States in coming weeks. I thank the President and the United States for honouring the deal. Around 50 refugees from PNG and Nauru will be expected in this first group and they will be notified in coming days. Vetting and processing by the United States will continue."
Nauru, December 15, 2003. FILE - Some of the 93 children in the refugee camp on the island of Nauru. Source: RURAL AUSTRALIANS FOR REFUGEES
Assistant Immigration Minister Alex Hawke told Sky News the development was evidence the government was cleaning up the mess left by the previous Labor government.
"The government under Malcolm Turnbull and Minister Dutton is cleaning up the mess that we inherited from Labor in terms of border protection, the offshore resettlement arrangements that Kevin Rudd put in place in such a rush, that came at such an expense to the taxpayer and really had a lot of human suffering. Slowly but surely, the Coalition government is protecting our borders."
But Labor frontbencher Matt Thistlethwaite disagreed, directing the blame at Tony Abbott for creating the detention mess.
"This was created by the Abbott opposition when they refused to back the Malaysia solution. We wouldn't be in this mess at all. We wouldn't have had to open Manus or Nauru if the Greens and the Liberal opposition at the time hadn't teamed up to oppose the Malaysia solution.
Green Senator Nick McKim said while it is good news for some refugees, there are still hundreds who have an uncertain future.
"There's still many, many hundreds of people who have applied for the US deal who are yet to find out whether they will be accepted by the US and even under an absolutely best case scenario, there are still going to be many hundreds of people left behind in Papua New Guinea and Nauru with no durable solution. So while this is an encouraging sign for a very small percentage of the people who are currently on Manus island and Nauru, the government has no plan on how to deal with the many, many hundreds of people who won't be able to resettle as part of this deal."
