AUSTRALIA – Australia is reportedly close to signing a deal to resettle refugees from the Nauru and Manus Island detention centres in a third country, but Prime Minister John Key says it’s not with New Zealand.

Media in Australia are speculating North American countries will take the refugees as part a refugee swap deal.

The newspaper The Australian says Prime minister Malcolm Turnbull hopes to finalise the resettlement deal by the end of the year.

In September, Australia agreed to take refugees from camps in Central America, but the government at the time denied that the agreement was part of an exchange.

“We are keen to get people off to third countries if they can’t return to their country of origin. We are working with a number of countries now,” Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said.

“No, it’s not New Zealand. There’s been no discussion with us taking refugees,” New Zealand’s Key said on Tuesday.

New Zealand has not been approached by Australia to be part of the agreement which Turnbull said on Sunday was part of discussions supporting a new immigration policy.

Key earlier said it’s increasingly unlikely that Australia would take up an existing offer from New Zealand to take 150 refugees from detention centres on Nauru or Manus Island.

That would create a backdoor for refugees who gain New Zealand citizenship to then enter Australia, and Key said the government had no intention of creating separate classes of citizens that would prevent that from happening.

The Australian government is also suggesting new legislation to ban asylum seekers arriving by boat from ever entering Australia, including on business or as a tourist, regardless of if they’re found to be a refugee.

Amnesty International has called on the New Zealand government to take a stronger stance against the Australian policy.

“To date, John Key has flatly refused to publicly acknowledge or condemn Australia’s actions, despite clear evidence of human rights abuses against refugees and asylum seekers at the offshore detention centre,” New Zealand executive director Grant Bayldon said.

“The New Zealand public wants John Key to speak out against these abuses. Now is the time for him to do so.”

New Zealand Labour leader Andrew Little said the ability to move freely around the world was an inherent human right and constraining that right was “not on the face of it at all acceptable”.

Violent conflict with locals on Manus Island has convinced refugees they will never be safe in Papua New Guinea.

A Kurdish Iranian refugee, Behrouz Boochani, says almost all of his fellow detainees would rather settle somewhere other than Australia.

“Australian government is a fascist government and we always say,‘let us that we go to third country’, and of course we are happy to go to Canada or America. But some people, their families are in Australia. Of course they want to go to Australia.”

Another Iranian refugee, Mojtaba Hamadoni, says his family has no future on Nauru and he would happily go to North America.

“What about New Zealand? Why not New Zealand? You cannot accept us? I want to move my family to any country. Canada, Australia, New Zealand, any country, America, Europe, I don’t care just I want to go.

“You know I want to find a future. Canada? Very nice, very nice country. I like that. But this is not our choice. The first time we come we planned we go Australia, not Nauru.” - PNC