Hemananthani Sivanandam
PETALING JAYA The Australian High Court’s rejection on Wednesday of Canberra’s refugee swap deal with Kuala Lumpur has put the spotlight on Malaysia’s lack of protection for asylum-seekers.
The Bar Council has urged the government to improve on its human rights standing internationally before it can play a serious role in fighting human trafficking.
For a start, it suggests that the government enact laws that recognise the status of refugees in the country, and ultimately ratify and accede to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol.
“The government should accord refugees and asylum-seekers internationally-accepted, minimum standards of protection,” said Bar Council president Lim Chee Wee, when commenting on the Australian High Court ruling blocking the transfer of asylum-seekers to Malaysia for processing.
Under the agreement signed on July 25, Australia will accept 4,000 asylum-seekers registered with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees in Kuala Lumpur and in return send 800 asylum-seekers to Malaysia.
The court had declared that under Australian law, the government cannot send asylum-seekers to be processed in another nation unless the host country is compelled to adequately protect them.
Reacting to the ruling, the Home Ministry said that Malaysia believed the asylum-seekers swap agreement was still the best way to tackle human traffickers.
“We continue to believe that the agreement between our governments is the best way to tackle the menace of people traffickers in a way that protects the interests of Australia, Malaysia and, above all, the immigrants involved,” the ministry said. It said that the government will work closely with the Australian government to determine the best course of action.
Lim said in a statement: “Ultimately Malaysia has to cease being a laggard when it comes to respect of human rights of both its citizens and non-citizens. If not, other attempts at international cooperation may well suffer the same embarrassing fate.
“It would be a great birthday present to ourselves if by this time next year we were to have passed the necessary implementing domestic legislation to accede to the numerous international human rights conventions to which we are yet a party.
“Then we would indeed be able to stand tall, with our heads held high, in the community of sovereign nations.”
Referring to the deal, he noted that the arrangement signed by both governments stated it was not to be legally binding.
“This non-law-based approach to protection of refugees and asylum-seekers is immature, if not disturbing, he said, adding it was high time for Malaysia to “grow up”, where respect for the rule of law and the right treatment of people, whether citizens or not, were concerned.
NGO Tenaganita director Irene Fernandez said the court decision underscored the fundamental terms of giving strong recognition to human rights standards as well as the protection of the rights of refugees.
“The Australian government should also recognise its responsibility and accountability as they have ratified the UN convention on refugees as well as their own migration clauses. It states that if they want to go in partnership with other countries, that country must have its own framework for the protection of the refugees. Malaysia does not have that framework or internal laws,” she said.
DAP international bureau secretary and Bukit Bendera MP Liew Chin Tong, who described the deal as being akin to “two sovereign governments engaging in trading humans for money”, said Malaysia should not pursue the deal and ratify the UN convention immediately.
The Australian government is desperately working to salvage its asylum-seeker policy as it braced for a spike in boat people out to capitalise on its devastating court defeat.
“We are going to study this High Court decision, but nothing in it is going to diminish our resolve to break the people smugglers’ business model,” Prime Minister Julia Gillard said in brief comments.
People-smugglers, meanwhile, appeared ready to exploit the court setback with several local reports suggesting boats bound for Australia were preparing to depart Indonesia in the next few days.
Immigration Minister Chris Bowen admitted there could be a rush heading to Australian shores. “I think you can expect people smugglers to be capitalising on this arrangement.”
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