Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Photo: UN Photo
There's unease and confusion in Palau over a deal the Government has made with the US to accept deportees.
On Christmas Eve, President Surangel Whipps Jr announced a deal had been made to accept up to 75 deportees from the US in exchange for US$7.5 million in aid. The agreement will allow "third-country nationals" who have never been charged with a crime, and whose home countries won't accept them back, to live and work in Palau.
In his statement on social media, President Whipps described the deal as "a decision about people seeking safety and stability and about the serious migration pressures faced by the United States".
The US Embassy in Koror said "the United States deeply appreciates Palau's cooperation in enforcing US immigration laws, which remains a top priority for the Trump Administration", adding that the $7.5 million would support Palau's public services.
However the announcement took many Palauans by surprise amid concern about human rights and also opposition to the deal in Palau's legislature.
Palau's Senate President, Hokkons Baules, said President Whipps failed to reach consensus earlier in the year when he brought the US ambassador to talk to the House and customary leaders about the proposed deal.
"We met and the ambassador explained what was going to happen and what the United States were going to do," Baules said.
"And the President asked (us) what's the position? So the Senate, the House and the Council of chiefs, we made the position, and we wrote letter to him that we don't accept this."
Palau has a population of almost 22,000. Photo: Reuters / Hollie Adams
The deal comes as the US administration steps up efforts to deport immigrants to third party countries, while also filing thousands of court motions to dismiss applications for asylum in the US and force people seeking asylum to find protection in other countries.
A source close to Palau's Government told RNZ Pacific that local people were uneasy about the new deal given the Trump administration's characterisation of deportees as criminals, and the lack of legal clarity around the process. Just last week, a US federal court judge ordered the Government to apply due process to Venezuelan migrants who the administration had flown from the US to a Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador.
The Pacific Islands region has already been swept up in the deportations gaining pace in the US. People who had settled in the US from Marshall Islands and Micronesia this year wound up at the notorious Guantánamo Bay detention centre in Cuba where the US has been sending what it called "undocumented immigrants' from dozens of countries.
Uncertainty
Baules said Palau was a friendly and peaceful country that welcomed visitors, but should not be pressured into a deal. He said it was not clear why the US wanted to deport people like this to Palau.
"We don't understand why, when these people are not criminals, and why they don't stay in the United States. Why is the United States looking for other country to host them?
"It's not explained well to the people of Palau why, and we are concerned of the money. When you offer us money to bring these people to Palau, if you really want to help us, help us without condition."
The timing of the announcement, at Christmas, may explain why it took several days for people in Palau to become aware of it. The Editor of Palau's Islands Times, Leilani Reklai, said many were surprised to hear about it in international media.
"Even members of the House, some of them were actually calling the media to ask 'is this real?'
"So the information that we received after Christmas Day that our President had signed an MOU with the US Government is a bit of a shock to our community, and especially to the (House) leadership which was not aware that he was going to take this unilateral decision," she explained.
Experts warn Palau does not have the infrastructure or legal systems to deal with complex immigration cases. Photo: Reuters / Hollie Adams
Hosting ayslum seekers was a hotly debated issue in Palau over recent years. In 2009, six ethnic Uighurs (a Muslim minority from China's Xinjiang region) were transferred from US detention in Guantánamo Bay to live in Palau. After several years, they'd all left Palau following mixed experiences.
The Senate and Chiefs in Palau came to their decision to reject further asylum deals partly due to concerns about human rights violations and the lack of a legal framework.
President Whipps' statement indicated that Palau would have to agree on a case-by-case basis as to which individuals would come to Palau under the deal. Each person will be screened through a national working group with input from traditional leaders, he said.
Whether Palau ultimately takes them all in remains to be seen, but with the Trump administration determined to keep deporting people to third countries to which they have no ties, US-affiliated Pacific Island countries might reasonably expect to be offered more deals.