Palau lawmakers reject US request to accept third country refugees

By Kirsty Needham

SYDNEY (Reuters) -The national congress of Palau has said it "cannot accept" a United States proposal for the Pacific Islands nation to accept asylum seekers from third countries, as its president holds annual funding talks in Washington.

Palau's national congress wrote to President Surangel Whipps Jr. earlier this month urging him to reject the request by the Trump Administration.

A letter signed by Senate President Hokkon Boules and House of Delegates speaker Gibson Kanai, viewed by Reuters, said the congress strongly supports Palau's partnership with the United States, but "cannot accept this specific proposal".

Palau, with a population of 17,000, has a compact of free association with the United States providing economic assistance in return for allowing the U.S. military access to its territory.

"We advise against proceeding further on this matter only because of the practical issues that the introduction of refugees would raise in our society," said the letter, dated July 21.

Whipps Jr. briefed Palau's national congress and council of chiefs about the request on July 18, the Palau president's office said in a statement at the time.

The proposed agreement gave Palau the right to accept or decline each individual referred by the U.S., the office said.

The U.S. Ambassador to Palau, Joel Ehrendreich told the meeting Palau would not be a processing centre like Nauru under Australia's offshore asylum policy, but would be considered a "safe third country", and financial assistance would be offered, Palau's Island Times reported.

Whipps Jr. is in Washington for annual talks about economic assistance, his office said.

"We anticipate there will be additional discussion held with local leadership," a spokeswoman told Reuters.

Palau was one of the few states to avoid any U.S. tariffs in April.

On July 15, the United States said a deportation flight from the U.S. carrying immigrants from different countries landed in Eswatini in southern Africa, a move that followed the U.S. Supreme Court lifting limits on the Trump Administration's policy to deport migrants to third countries.

Palau is not a signatory to the 1951 U.N. Refugee Convention.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Palau said it had no comment on the letter.

Human rights advocates have raised due process and other concerns over Trump's immigration policies that his administration has cast as measures aimed at improving domestic security.

(Reporting by Kirsty Needham in Sydney; Editing by Kate Mayberry)

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