THE deal to send 800 boat people from Australia to Malaysia will be signed within weeks - and includes a plan to give each refugee a barcode for indentification as soon as they arrive. Senior Home Affairs officials said the refugees who arrive in the country will not be given special treatment.
During a one-hour meeting with opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison, Malaysian Home Affairs senior deputy secretary-general Dato Alwi bin Haji Ibrahim detailed how the refugee swap would work. The deal is set to be signed in early July.
The only remaining "sticking point" is which country would be responsible for sending immigrants back to their country if they did not meet the refugee criteria. Each of the 800 boat people who arrive in Malaysia will be screened by national security and tested for communicable diseases.
They would be issued with a special barcode, which only immigration officials - not police or RELA - can scan with mobile phones
Malaysian negotiators have privately told Australian officials they would not support any preferential treatment for refugees from Australia.
Fearing a revolt by Malaysia's 94,000 illegal immigrants, the Home Affairs Department has declared that the 800 arrivals would need to find their own accommodation after the initial processing. The UNHCR is expected to be provided with increased funding to assist the new arrivals.
The refugees would also face other strict rules including not being allowed to work and not getting access to public schools or healthcare.
Following the meeting, Mr Morrison toured the KLIA detention centre.
Hundreds of women and children spend up to 22 hours locked behind 9000 volt electric fences and barbed wire at KLIA, which is guarded by the RELA civilian paramilitary corps. During the 30-minute trip, Mr Morrison was allowed to walk through the three main blocks, which currently hold more than 600 Burmese, Indonesian, Filipino and Indian immigrants.
After the visit, Mr Morrison said the conditions he saw at the KLIA detention centre could not be compared to any Australian facilities.
For more on the plan to give a barcode to each of the 800 asylum seekers sent to Malaysia under Labor's swap deal go to The Daily Telegraph.
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