Six refugees are on their way to Canada for resettlement after spending eight years in Papua New Guinea, including years in detention on Manus Island.
Their departures are part of a push by Australian and Canadian civil society organisations to arrange and sponsor the private resettlement of over 100 refugees held offshore by Australia.
Another refugee arrived in Canada under the effort earlier this week, bringing the total number of people resettled this way to seven.
The arrivals are thanks to a Canadian system of private sponsorship for refugees. If a refugee can show they have enough Canadian locals to support them, plus funding to sustain them, they can be eligible to relocate to that country's shores.
Operation #NotForgotten is a campaign to use that system to resettle the men and women who were sent to Papua New Guinea and Nauru after arriving in Australia by boat.
It's run by the Refugee Council of Australia, a migrant and refugee settlement organisation in Vancouver called MOSAIC, and a volunteer group called Ads Up Canada Refugee Network.
Since 2019, the coalition has applied for 157 refugees held in Papua New Guinea or Nauru, or in detention in Australia, to be resettled in Canada. Some 120 of their family members are also slated to be relocated to Canada.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic has slowed the process of approvals and departures.
MOSAIC and Ads Up Canada say a man who was formerly held on Manus Island then transferred to Australia arrived in Canada on Monday, making him the first person to be successfully resettled under Operation #NotForgotten.
Five men are due to arrive in Vancouver on Friday, and another will go to Toronto.
Each of the seven has been in Papua New Guinea since 2013, the organisations said.
The project has so far raised over $3 million to support the resettlement.
Supporters of refugees at a rally in Melbourne in October. Source: AAP
The Australian government's insistence since mid-2013 that nobody who sought asylum by boat would be settled in Australia has led to years of limbo for the thousands of people who arrived by that method in 2013 and 2014.
Some 3127 people were transferred to detention camps in Papua New Guinea or Nauru.
Around 1000 were ultimately accepted by the United States under a resettlement deal, which is now drawing to a close.
The Australian government has insisted that those people left over should return to the home countries they fled or stay in Papua New Guinea or Nauru.
Operation #NotForgotten was devised to help people with no viable resettlement options who were excluded from the US resettlement deal.
Unlike the US deal, the Canadian resettlements have been achieved without any involvement from the Australian government.
A handful of other refugees sent offshore by Australia have previously been resettled in Canada under other private sponsorships or by the United nations.
The now-closed detention centre on Manus Island, PNG. Source: Getty Images/Jonas Gratzer
At the end of October, 106 people remained on Nauru and 122 in Papua New Guinea, Australian government figures show.
The government announced in October it would end offshore processing in Papua New Guinea by the end of the year. Offshore processing will continue in Nauru.
Hundreds have been transferred to Australia for medical treatment not available in those island nations. They are either held in detention - in some case for years - or kept on temporary visas.
AAP has contacted the Department of Home Affairs and Australian Border Force for comment.
