Australia Says Rights Key To Malaysia Refugee Deal

By Agence France-Presse

Australia Sunday said human rights would be a key element in its deal with Kuala Lumpur to send hundreds of asylum seekers to Malaysia, as the UN welcomed its move to treat minors on a case-by-case basis.

Australia is in advanced discussions with Malaysia on a plan to send 800 asylum seekers to the Southeast Asian nation in exchange for accepting some 4,000 of its registered refugees.

Cabinet minister Jenny Macklin said a human rights reference was included in Australia's original in-principle agreement between Prime Minister Julia Gillard and her Malaysian counterpart and the issue was key to the government.

"That is very important to us and something that we know is critical to achieve in the final agreement," Families Minister Macklin told ABC television.

Canberra has come under fire in recent days for proposing there be no blanket exceptions to its plan to send asylum seekers to Malaysia, even for minors, despite the country not be a signatory to the UN refugees convention.

Refugee advocates have suggested that asylum seekers could be mistreated in Malaysia, arguing that unaccompanied children were particularly vulnerable.

Immigration Minister Chris Bowen indicated Saturday that unaccompanied minors would be managed on a "case by case basis", with anyone considered vulnerable afforded "particular care".

"We will consider, in those cases, if it is appropriate to transfer those people to Malaysia or to make other arrangements, and if they are transferred to Malaysia, what care and support needs to be put in place," Bowen said.

The UNHCR, which had said it was unable to lend its support to a plan that did not protect vulnerable groups such as unaccompanied children, welcomed Bowen's comments and said it remained committed to negotiations on the scheme.

"UNHCR continues to expect that appropriate refugee and human rights protections will be incorporated to any finalised agreement," it said in a statement from Canberra.

"In particular, UNHCR insists that special consideration and appropriate protection arrangements will be put in place for vulnerable groups including unaccompanied minors."

Refugees are a sensitive issue in Australia, where a record 6,900 illegal immigrants arrived by boat in 2010, mostly on rickety vessels from Indonesia and usually hailing from strife-torn Iraq, Afghanistan or Sri Lanka.

The government says its new approach is designed to rob people-smugglers of their business, and would ensure that no one else risked their life making the perilous sea voyage to Australia which claimed scores of lives last year.

Gillard had originally proposed establishing a regional processing centre for asylum seekers, who often use Indonesia as a staging hub for their journey to Australia, in East Timor but this was coolly received.

Her government is now in negotiations with Papua New Guinea on reopening its centre on Manus Island, a move some in the media have likened it to a return to the previous conservative administration's "Pacific Solution".

Under this scheme, asylum seekers were sent to Australian-funded detention centres on the tiny Pacific island of Nauru or impoverished Papua New Guinea.

Although most asylum seekers were ultimately resettled in Australia under this plan, the policy was branded "inhumane" by human rights groups and was repealed by Gillard's centre-left Labor Party in 2007.