A few hours later the US President did just that, tweeting that the deal he had supposedly agreed to honour was "dumb", and deriding those on Manus Island and Nauru as "illegal immigrants".

For the refugees stuck in Australia's offshore processing centres, the relationship between Mr Trump and Malcolm Turnbull is about much more than diplomatic protocol or political wrangling. It's about their future, their very lives.

"It feels like someone is stabbing a knife in our chest when we hear different stories every day," says Imran Mohammed, a Rohingya refugee on Manus. "We have no expectation, as well as no dream."

Mr Mohammed is among the 871 men in Papua New Guinea awaiting resettlement. He had hoped the arrangement struck with the US would put an end to his three years in detention.

That prospect is fading as the deal made with Barack Obama appears to unravel under the Trump administration. Reports that a furious President Trump berated Mr Turnbull over "the worst deal ever", and bluntly told him "I don't want these people", have plunged the already-desperate group of asylum seekers into even deeper despair.

"It makes me feel we are not welcomed into his country," Mr Mohammed said on Thursday. "It is excruciatingly hard to fight against the words like refugees subject to 'extreme vetting'. There is no glimpse of hope left in this environment. Many of us [have] lost faith in life and don't want to live in this world."

There are growing calls from refugee advocates in Australia to abandon the US arrangement entirely. The Greens called on Mr Turnbull to scrap the deal, saying "only a fool would take Trump at his word", while Daniel Webb at the Human Rights Law Centre said "enough is enough" and that "it's not good enough to just sit back and hope for the best from Donald Trump".

There have been conflicting messages from the White House about whether Mr Trump will proceed with the arrangement, culminating in President's tweet about 3pm Thursday (Australian time) announcing he would "study" what he called the "dumb deal" struck by Mr Obama.

For the 2000 men, women and children stuck in the middle of this extraordinary stoush between foreign leaders, each twist in the tale is a blow to their fragile sense of hope. Other than the US, there are no options on the table - the Turnbull government will not allow them to come to Australia, and although it says it is discussing resettlement deals with other countries, no offers have yet emerged.

"People are very worried. We still have a lot of questions about the deal, and most people don't trust the answers they're getting," Mr Boochani said on Thursday.

"People are following the news closely but day by day they are getting more worried. Most people would be really happy to go to America but each day we hear different news."

Mr Boochani said the Washington Post's explosive account of the Trump/Turnbull phone call had been doing the rounds on Manus Island on Thursday. He had always been sceptical of the deal and is now finding his cynicism was well-founded.

"Really, it's hard to trust in Trump or Turnbull," Mr Boochani told Fairfax Media. "Trump has an ideological problem with the deal and if he accepts the refugees it means he's not Trump. He will hurt himself by accepting them.

"I don't think the deal will happen, or if it happens the process will take a long time and will only be for a few people. It looks really illogical to insist on a deal with Donald Trump who is so against refugees.

"It's clear that their main policy for these islands is to waste time and keep people in such a hard situation for years . . . to pressure people to go back to their source countries. This is not only my thinking, it's my experience in this island."

At least one US official has visited Manus Island and Nauru to get the ball rolling, along with departmental staff from Australia. Refugees have been told the process could take six to 12 months, and interviews will be conducted by the US's Resettlement Support Centre East Asia.

Mr Mohammed has not given up, but is growing increasingly bleak about his prospects.

"We hope and pray that the President Donald Trump will honour the deal and we will be given an opportunity to work towards supporting his country and love its people deeply," he wrote to Fairfax Media this week.

"We have always been concerned about the deal and we still are. We have been told too many things, yet we are still stuck behind the same fence without any clear view of our future.

"We can't smile nowadays and can't find any joy in our lives. Although we are alive, we are dead inside."

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