KUALA LUMPUR: It appears that a proposed refugee swap deal between Malaysia and Australia has hit a snag as Australian officials seem unwilling to move forward on the agreement that aims to ease immigration and help put a cease to illegal immigration between Southeast Asia and Australia. Australia's immigration department admitted this week that Malaysia has not agreed to bolster human rights protections for asylum seekers under the “people-swap” agreement and could see the deal flounder if action is not taken immediately. Department secretary Martin Bowles said the two nations had discussed the deal since the federal government's expert panel recommended in August that Malaysia provide more protections for minors. “Until there is a clear way forward here, it's not in the budget and … we're not changing anything between us and Malaysia in relation to the agreement,” Bowles told a Senate estimates hearing in Canberra on Monday. Asked whether Malaysia had agreed to pass laws to strengthen protections for asylum seekers, Bowles replied, “Not to my knowledge.” The tough stance on asylum-seekers “cannot be fully effective unless they operate in conjunction with the proposed asylum seeker swap deal with Malaysia," Australia's Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said last year. He added that the government was being denied “all the tools" necessary to break the people smugglers' model, by the coalition's opposition to the Malaysia people swap deal. The government announced in November that all asylum seekers who arrive in Australia by boat would be denied permanent protection visas for up to five years even if they were found to be genuine refugees, which has sparked international outrage. Some would be allowed into the community on bridging visas, but they would have no work rights and only limited access to accommodation and financial support. “The government wants to stem the flow; we want to break the people smuggling model," Conroy told the Nine Network. “We haven't got all the tools at the moment and the reason we haven't got all the tools we need is because (Opposition Leader) Tony Abbott blocked in parliament some of the necessary tools." Conroy said the government must be allowed to implement the Malaysia solution, under which 800 people would have been sent to Malaysia for processing in exchange for 4,000 processed refugees. “We'll continue to deport those who are coming here who aren't legitimate refugees," he said. “But we need the Malaysia solution as well; we've always said this. It's Tony Abbott that won't vote for it; it's Tony Abbott that's refused to co-operate." Conroy denied that releasing more asylum seekers into the community on bridging visas would be viewed as a desirable outcome and encourage more refugees to risk the illegal journey by boat. “They don't get work rights, A$440 (about RM1,400) (a fortnight in welfare payments) is not considered by anybody in this country ... a generous amount of money and they get to be potentially taken to Manus Island or Nauru at the discretion of the government." Immigration Minister Chris Bowen has rejected criticism the government was losing the fight against people smugglers. However, he conceded that more than 7,500 people had arrived in the three months since Canberra adopted its tougher policies, which were intended to “break the people smugglers' business model." “We've seen a big increase in arrivals, particularly from Sri Lanka," he told ABC radio late last year. That was why the government was implementing tough policies like offshore processing. Canberra had clinched a deal in 2011 to send 800 boat people to Malaysia in exchange for 4,000 registered refugees as a deterrent to people paying smugglers to make the dangerous maritime voyage to Australia. However that deal was scrapped by the High Court and was also opposed in the Australian parliament, which insists asylum-seekers should only be sent to countries that have signed the UN refugee convention. But with Australia facing a record rise in boat people this year — more than 13,500 since January 1 — and an offshore camp in Nauru becoming overcrowded, Foreign Minister Bob Carr said the plan needed to be revisited. Carr was in Malaysia earlier this month said the government in Kuala Lumpur remained committed to the deal and deserved credit instead of criticism for how they had dealt with asylum-seekers. Carr acknowledged that Malaysia was no closer to signing the UN convention but said: “It's very silly if that's a stumbling block. “As Malaysia sees it, they have two million illegal workers, they have 100,000 refugees, they're dealing with this and they can deal with it without signing the convention," he said. “We were more than happy with the assurances that they gave us when we negotiated the arrangement with them." In the deal, Australia will send boat people to Malaysia for processing while Australia will accept 5,000 genuine refugees now living in Malaysia. BN
