Australian and Malaysian Leaders Pursue the Malaysia Plan

The Malaysian Prime Minister, Najib Razak, and the Australian Prime Minister met for the first time since the Malaysia Plan was shelved.  The Malaysian Leader is in Australia for a meeting of Commonwealth leaders and talked with Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard on 27th October.

Ms Gillard and Mr Najib believe that the Malaysia Plan is the best way to stop people smuggling.  After their meeting, a spokesperson said that “both prime ministers reaffirmed their commitment to the Malaysia-Australia transfer agreement as an innovative and effective approach to combating people smuggling.”

The two leaders struck the deal in May this year.  As part of the plan Australia would send 800 asylum seekers who arrived in Australia by boat to Malaysia in exchange for 4,000 processed refugees.  But the Australian High Court said that the deal was against the law because the Government does not have the power to decide that asylum seekers can be sent to any country.  The Australian Government tried to change the law but failed because they did not have enough support in Parliament.

Despite the High Court ruling, the Australian Government says it remains committed to the Malaysian Plan.  The Government says that it believes sending asylum seekers to Malaysia would undermine people smugglers and stop asylum seeker boats sailing for Australia.  Many asylum seekers pass through Malaysia when they try to come to Australia.

The Malaysian Prime Minister said he wanted to go ahead with the Plan because he did not want to see more people drowning like those off Christmas Island.  In December 2010 30 asylum seekers drowned when their boat crashed off the coast of Christmas Island.  18 more bodies were never found.  "At this point, it would be easy to give up, to tell ourselves that we tried but the problem was too big, too politically difficult to deal with, and the people smuggling would go on.  The boats would continue to sail.  Heartless traffickers would continue to take everything from desperate people - their money, their dignity and, all too often, their lives,” he wrote to an Australia Newspaper.

The Malaysian Leader also said “it is nothing less than a 21st-century trade in human misery and it must not be allowed to continue.”  He said he was not prepared to stand by and watch people smuggling continue.

Australia’s Immigration Minister welcomed the comments by the Malaysian Prime Minister but said that because of the High Court ruling and the Opposition’s decision not to support changing the law, the Malaysia Plan could not go ahead at the moment. 

The Opposition also wants to process asylum seekers offshore but not in Malaysia.  The Opposition wants to tow people-smugglers boats back to Indonesia when possible and send asylum seekers to Nauru.  They also want to re-introduce Temporary Protection Visas.

Meanwhile the Australian Navy found and caught another people smuggling boat on the 30^th of October.  The boat was carrying 57 asylum seekers trying to get to Australia.  It is the third boat in one week.

Australia currently has nearly 4,000 asylum seekers from countries such as Iran, Iraq, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan in detention.  This is less that the 6,000 people in detention centres earlier this year.