Australian Government Still Wants to Pursue Malaysia Plan

The Australian Labor Party has voted to pursue a regional plan for the offshore processing of asylum seekers at its national conference.

There are two main political parties in Australia, the Australian Labor Party and the Liberal Party of Australia. Most people elected to Parliament are members of these parties. The current government is a Labor Party government and is led by the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard.

Members of the Labor Party met on the 3rd December to decide what policies they would have while in government. The Minister for Immigration, Chris Bowen, proposed that the Malaysia Plan should become a policy of the Labor Party. At the same time, he also proposed that the intake of UNHCR-registered refugees should be increased, from 13,750 to 20,000 a year. Both proposals were approved and are now Labor Party policies.

While they are Labor Party policies, they have not been voted on in Parliament so are not yet laws. Mr Bowen said “it's my view that we will be pursuing it through the parliament again, (but) we will need to see Mr. Abbott change his position if it is to pass the parliament.” Mr. Abbot is leader of the Liberal Party that wants offshore processing in Nauru, not Malaysia. The immigration spokesman for the Liberal Party said the government's asylum seeker policy had failed.

Several Labor party members criticized the proposals and the Malaysia Plan saying that the Plan violates Australia's international obligations as a signatory of the UN Refugee Convention. Refugee groups also attacked the proposals. The Refugee Action Coalition said “any plan to expel asylum seekers to Malaysia, or any other third country, is a fundamental (failure of) Australia's obligation to provide protection for who arrive on our shores fleeing persecution.” But Mr Bowen said Australia needs "to tackle this with a soft heart and a hard head."

The Government first proposed the Malaysia Plan in May this year in an attempt to deter people-smugglers. Under the Plan, 800 asylum seekers arriving in Australia by boat would be sent to Malaysia to have their refugee applications processed but they would not be allowed to come to Australia, even if their applications were successful. In return for taking the 400 asylum seekers, Australia would accept 4,000 registered refugees from Malaysia. The plan collapsed in August after Australia's High Court said offshore processing was illegal under current Australian law.

The Government believes that processing asylum seekers in Malaysia will break the people smugglers business model and prevent even more asylum seekers from drowning at sea. At the conference, Mr. Bowen said refugees were risking their lives on boat journeys between Australia and Indonesia. Almost 50 asylum seekers drowned when their boat sank off the coast of Christmas Island a year ago. "There have inevitably been others that we simply don't know about," he said.

On the 2nd December the 59th and 60th boats this year carrying asylum seekers arrived in Australia. This brings the total number of asylum seekers arriving by boat this year to 3,802. There are approximately 500 more asylum seekers waiting for boats in Indonesia.  If they arrive this year, the annual total is set to exceed 4,000 for the third time since 1999.  This is less than the almost 7,000 who arrived by boat in 2010.