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Aussie people swap plan stalled
Source: Agencies |
September 1, 2011, Thursday
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AUSTRALIA'S highest court yesterday scuttled government plans for a refugee swap with Malaysia in a major policy setback for embattled Prime Minister Julia Gillard, already trailing badly in opinion polls and facing defeat at the next election.
Australia and Malaysia signed an agreement in July under which Australia was to accept 4,000 asylum seekers currently in Malaysia in return for sending 800 arrivals in Australia to Malaysia where their refugee claims would be processed.
Marianne Dickie, an expert on migration law at Australian National University, said: "It is a slap in the face for the Gillard government. It is a huge setback for the Malaysian solution. It effectively hobbles the policy, if not ending it."
Gillard signed the Malaysian deal to deter people smugglers and to fight perceptions her government was soft on asylum seekers. But the High Court agreed with two asylum seekers who asked it to declare the people swap illegal because Malaysia had no legal guarantees to protect their rights.
Australia is a signatory to the UN convention on refugees but Malaysia is not.
Australia may now have to reopen the mothballed Manus Island immigration detention center in Papua New Guinea and a detention center in the remote Pacific island nation of Nauru.
Both these centers were used by the former conservative government under its controversial Pacific Solution, where asylum seekers who arrived by boat were sent to other countries to have their refugee claims processed.
Australia and Malaysia signed an agreement in July under which Australia was to accept 4,000 asylum seekers currently in Malaysia in return for sending 800 arrivals in Australia to Malaysia where their refugee claims would be processed.
Marianne Dickie, an expert on migration law at Australian National University, said: "It is a slap in the face for the Gillard government. It is a huge setback for the Malaysian solution. It effectively hobbles the policy, if not ending it."
Gillard signed the Malaysian deal to deter people smugglers and to fight perceptions her government was soft on asylum seekers. But the High Court agreed with two asylum seekers who asked it to declare the people swap illegal because Malaysia had no legal guarantees to protect their rights.
Australia is a signatory to the UN convention on refugees but Malaysia is not.
Australia may now have to reopen the mothballed Manus Island immigration detention center in Papua New Guinea and a detention center in the remote Pacific island nation of Nauru.
Both these centers were used by the former conservative government under its controversial Pacific Solution, where asylum seekers who arrived by boat were sent to other countries to have their refugee claims processed.
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