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| The UNHCR says it was not informed in advance that the agreement would include unaccompanied children. (AFP : Joe Klamar ) |
The UN refugee agency has dealt a blow to the Government's hopes of finalising a refugee swap deal with Malaysia, refusing to support it without changes.
The United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) says it was not informed in advance that the agreement would include unaccompanied children.
Head of the Washington office, Vincent Cochetel, has told the ABC he is concerned Australia could be in breach of its obligations under the international Refugee Convention.
It comes as several Western Australian Labor MPs say their federal counterparts have lost their moral compass and urged them to take a more compassionate approach to children and pregnant mothers seeking asylum.
The split in Labor Party ranks occurred yesterday following Immigration Minister Chris Bowen's confirmation on ABC1's Lateline program that unaccompanied children will be among the 800 people sent to Malaysia in return for Australia accepting 4,000 refugees.
The program revealed draft documents on the in-principle deal show Malaysia has removed all references to human rights.
The Government says the support of the UNHCR is fundamental to the refugee swap deal, but Mr Bowen has argued that giving anyone a break, even children, would only encourage people smugglers.
"I don't want unaccompanied minors, I don't want children getting on boats to come to Australia thinking or knowing that there is some sort of exemption in place," he said.
Since then, the Geneva office of the UNHCR issued a statement saying it could not support the deal unless there are changes.
Mr Cochetel says the proposal is unique and initially the agency thought it was a step in the right direction, but now there are insufficient protection safeguards for asylum seekers.
"No, unfortunately we are not able to lend our support to the agreement as it stands now because those safeguards do not seem to be present," he said.
In particular, the UNHCR representative says, the agency was caught by surprise when it became clear that the Australian Government intended to include unaccompanied children.
Mr Cochetel says it is not too late for the agreement to be amended to include sufficient protection for children.
"I think it's not too late to have an addendum to it to have some operational guidelines around this agreement that would clarify exactly what will be the safeguards for the unaccompanied minors - I don't think that's difficult," he said.
"We have to make sure that they have access to a child protection officer, adequate interpretation capacity in order to understand what has been their story.
"Then the authorities can take an informed decision as to what are the best interests of this particular child."
The UNHCR is also concerned that the proposal breaches Australia's obligations under the international Refugee Convention - a convention Malaysia is not party to.
Mr Bowen has said the details are still evolving and the UNHCR says lines of communication are still open, but without changes the body will not be supporting it.
Meanwhile, a human rights lawyer says it is scandalous to send child asylum seekers to another country for processing.
Julian Burnside says Mr Bowen is by law the guardian of unaccompanied minors who come to the country.
"The Minister for Immigration thinks that it is consistent with the best interests of children to be sent to a country where they're likely to be physically mistreated and jailed for years whilst they wait for some country to offer to give them protection," he said.
"It really is a scandalous denial of the Minister's obligations."
And a refugee lawyer who demanded the closure of the Nauru detention centre now wants it reopened in light of the Government's plan to send children to Malaysia.
Marion Le was a strident critic of the Howard government's Pacific Solution because of concern about the treatment of asylum seekers.
But she told Saturday AM that it is a less costly solution than Malaysia and at least Australia would have some control over what happens to people.
"Having been to Nauru myself three times at the height of the Pacific Solution, so-called, I would much rather see people taken to Nauru than I would to any of the other alternative places that Julia Gillard's come up with," she said.
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