The Life of a Refugee Dismissed by Trump

President Trump on Wednesday questioned a deal to bring migrants held by Australia into the United States as refugees. Here is what daily life looks like for one of them, a Kurdish dissident from Iran. He has been held on Manus Island for over three years.

By MEGAN SPECIA and YARA BISHARA on Publish Date February 2, 2017. Photo by Ashley Gilbertson for The New York Times.

The Trump administration official said the call was shorter than planned, and ended abruptly after Mr. Turnbull told the president it was necessary for the refugees to be accepted.

The details of the call were confirmed by a senior administration official with direct knowledge of the exchange who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly discuss the diplomatic talks.

Mr. Turnbull, speaking Thursday at a press briefing in Australia’s southern state of Victoria, refused to comment at length on the telephone call, or say whether it had ended sooner than expected. But he did acknowledge that it had been candid.

“I’ve seen that report,” Mr. Turnbull said of the Washington Post account, “and I’m not going to comment on the conversation, other than to say that in the course of the conversation, as you know and as was confirmed by the president’s official spokesman in the White House, the president assured me that he would continue with, honor the agreement we entered into with the Obama administration with respect to refugee resettlement.”

Pressed about Mr. Trump’s tone, and whether the president ended the call by hanging up, Mr. Turnbull refused to comment. “It’s better that these things, these conversations are conducted candidly, frankly, privately,” he said.

Mr. Turnbull again stated that Australia’s relationship with the United States remained robust, but if the deal to resettle the refugees falls through, Canberra will be left with a seemingly intractable political problem at home.

The Australian government has a policy that bars any refugees who attempted to arrive by boat from ever setting foot in the country. The majority of the refugees being held on the Pacific islands of Nauru and Manus are from Iran and Iraq. Both are Muslim-majority nations that are among the seven countries — including Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen — whose citizens are barred from entering the United States for at least 90 days under an executive order signed by Mr. Trump last week.