Peter Dutton says Nauru refugees have collection of Armani

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has taken aim at the first group of refugees to leave Australia’s offshore detention centres for resettlement in the United States.

Sydney radio host Ray Hadley put to the minister during a regular interview on Thursday that a photograph of the group published by News Corp this week looked like a fashion show on a catwalk in Paris or New York.

‘Somebody once said to me the world’s biggest collection of Armani jeans and handbags was up on Nauru waiting for people to collect it when they depart,’ Mr Dutton told 2GB radio. 

More than 50 refugees this week left offshore detention on Manus Island and Nauru for a new life in the US. 

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Sydney radio host Ray Hadley told the minister during a regular interview on Thursday that a photograph of the group published by News Corp this week (not pictured) looked like a fashion show on a catwalk in Paris or New York (pictured are asylum seekers leaving the Manus Island detention centre)

Mr Dutton, asked about an image of those preparing to depart Port Moresby, said a lot of people who ended up in the island camps had not come from war-ravaged areas but were instead economic refugees.

They’d received ‘an enormous amount of support’ from Australian taxpayers for a long time.

‘We have been taken for a ride, I believe, by a lot of the advocates and people within Labor and the Greens who want you to believe this is a terrible existence,’ Mr Dutton said.

‘These photos demonstrate otherwise. People have seen other photos in recent weeks of those up on Manus out enjoying themselves outside this centre, by the beach and all the rest of it.’

Mr Dutton told 2GB radio ‘Somebody once said to [him] the world’s biggest collection of Armani jeans and handbags was up on Nauru waiting for people to collect it when they depart’

Asylum seekers are pictured leaving the Manus Island detention centre on Sunday

Mr Dutton said he had long predicted once people were off Manus Island and Nauru ‘they’ll start to tell a very different story about how it wasn’t that bad’.

‘There is a very different scenario up on Nauru and Manus than people want you to believe,’ he said.

The refugees arrived in Australian waters years ago and were transferred to offshore detention under a strict government policy to block anyone who arrived by boat from entering the country.

They were recently cleared by US authorities for resettlement under a deal struck between the former Obama administration and the Turnbull government.

Up to 1,250 refugees are expected to be resettled in the U.S.

More than 50 refugees this week left offshore detention on Manus Island and Nauru for a new life in the U.S.