SYDNEY: The Austrlian opposition has suggested the government might announce details of an asylum-seeker swap deal with Malaysia under the cover of its carbon pricing scheme this weekend.
Canberra and Kuala Lumpur are in “very advanced” negotiations about an arrangement for Malaysia to accept up to 800 asylum seekers arriving by boat in return for Australia taking 4,000 processed refugees.
“One can only wonder whether the government may seek to announce this on Sunday,” opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday.
The MP was referring to Sunday’s planned unveiling of Labor’s carbon pricing scheme, an event certain to dominate the political news cycle.
Morrison said he understood there were still a number of sticking points to finalising the swap deal, including access to schools, healthcare and work rights, as well as which country was responsible for returning failed asylum seekers.
Malaysian activists have called for a complete rejection of the deal considering Malaysia’s poor human rights record and its reluctance to ratify the Refugee Convention.
The 800 boatpeople Australia plans to send to Malaysia will be granted immunity from the country’s harsh immigration laws, eliminating the threat of caning.
Rather than being sent to existing detention camps, they will spend six weeks in a new Australian-funded holding centre before being issued identity tags and released into the community, News Limited newspapers said.
This will allow them to avoid being treated as illegal immigrants under Malaysian law, which will protect them from the possibility of caning and other punishments.
But this move of exemption from Malaysian immigration laws has been met with hostility from local activist groups.
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