Australia and Malaysia on Monday signed a controversial deal to swap thousands of boatpeople and refugees in a bid to deter future asylum seekers from trying to slip into Australia by sea. Under the agreement opposed by rights groups in both countries, Malaysia will take 800 boatpeople already in Australia in return for Canberra resettling some 4,000 "genuine refugees" processed by Kuala Lumpur in the next four years.
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard quickly defended the deal, calling it a blow to people smugglers who she said prey on people desperate to flee from countries like Afghanistan, Iraq and Myanmar. "My message today to anyone considering paying money to people smugglers and risking their lives: do not do that in the false hope you'll be able to have your claim processed in Australia," she told a news conference in Canberra.
The standard international practice backed by the United Nations is for asylum seekers to be processed in the country where they land. Addressing fears that refugees may be maltreated in Malaysia, which only two weeks ago arrested 1,600 citizens campaigning for political reform, Gillard vowed that they "will be treated with dignity and respect" - a phrase contained in the agreement itself.
It was signed by Australian Immigration Minister Chris Bowen and Malaysia's Home Affairs Minister Hishammuddin Hussein at a luxury hotel in Kuala Lumpur as a small group of activists held a protest outside. "I hope I never get another call telling me that people have drowned trying to make it to Australia and that children as young as two months old have drowned trying to come to Australia," Bowen said.
The Australian minister said the boatpeople's transfer to Malaysia would begin immediately while asylum seekers heading to Australia would be held for at least 45 days at transit centres around Kuala Lumpur. They will subsequently be allowed to "move into the community, with work rights, access to education and health care," he said in a statement. The plan has sparked concern because Malaysia is not a signatory to the UN Refugee Convention, nor has it ratified the UN Convention against Torture.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has not approved the proposed swap and said in a statement that it would prefer asylum seekers arriving by boat to be processed in Australian territory. Amnesty International has warned that asylum seekers sent to Malaysia could face lengthy waits to determine their status, as well as inhumane detention conditions and even caning.
"Australia has signed a deal with a country which has a brutal record of treating refugees," said Irene Fernandez, director of Malaysian campaign group Tenaganita. "The swap deal is a form of human trading. To me it is turning refugees into commodities," she told AFP. Resolving the issue of asylum seekers arriving by boat would be a political victory for Australia, where all boatpeople are held in mandatory detention.
Some 1,800 asylum seekers have arrived in Australia on 31 boats so far in 2011, after a record influx of some 7,000 boatpeople in 2010. It has been pushing for a regional solution but a deal with East Timor suggested by Gillard has already foundered, while negotiations to establish a centre in Papua New Guinea have been set back by political instability there. Canberra is facing growing unrest including riots and fires at its main detention centre on the remote Indian Ocean territory of Christmas Island.
Refugee advocates said inmates buried themselves in shallow graves last week as a symbolic gesture of protest. The immigration department said Sunday that about 60 inmates were taking part in a peaceful protest at the Scherger detention centre in Queensland, with about 50 of them going on a hunger strike. Refugee activists said one asylum seeker protesting at Scherger had cut his throat Saturday while another had cut his arm.
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