Australia and US to Swap Refugees

Australia and the US have agreed to a program for exchanging each other’s asylum seekers, with the hopes that geographic distance will discourage dangerous voyages and illegal immigration. The US will handle Australia’s asylum seekers from places like Sri Lanka and Burma; Australia will handle the US detainees from Haiti and Cuba. Though the program, the US and Australia will process and resettle the other’s asylum seekers, reports “The Guardian.” Critics point out that the US and Australia have few differences other than geographic distance, which will do little to deter refugees desperate for any scrap of economic opportunity. – YaleGlobal