‘Not without my partner’: refugees forced to choose between family in Australia and chance of US visa

"Lara" (not her real name) is a refugee formerly in Australia's offshore detention system on Nauru, who has turned down the chance of resettlement in the US because her husband, also a refugee, has had his application rejected by the US. Photograph: Images supplied via Saba Vasefi, subject has given her consent to them being used.

Refugees previously held in detention on Nauru have turned down the chance of a US visa because their partners – also accepted as refugees – have been denied permission to join them.

Under its deal with the Australian government in 2016, the US agreed to resettle up to 1,250 refugees who had been held in Australia’s offshore system on Nauru or Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island.