However, Love Makes A Way south-west spokesman Joel Rothman said the group still feared for the hundreds left in offshore detention centres.

“It’s exciting that there will be some resettlement from it, at least 50 and possibly a few hundred in the next few months,” he said of the refugee deal.

“Even if the US does take the hundreds that they said they would take, that does leave hundreds on Manus and Nauru with nowhere to go.”

The federal government said it planned to close the Manus Island detention centre by the end of October. Mr Rothman said people who had been in limbo for the past four-and-a-half years now faced an even more uncertain future.

“There’s still going to be hundreds of people left when the detention centre closes in a few weeks. We could bring them to Australia tomorrow,” he said. Mr Rothman also expressed concern at the federal government’s offer to pay Rohingya refugees who agree to return to Myanmar amid reports of wide scale ethnic cleansing in the country.

“Their suggestion is to send them back. It’s extraordinary,” he said.

“So the US refugee deal doesn’t help everyone.”

The first group of refugees being resettled in the US could leave as early as this weekend, however, the process is expected to take some time.