Malaysia Plan Still an Option for Australia’s Government

The Australian Government’s plan to send asylum seekers arriving in Australia by boat to Malaysia is still up in the air after debate on the law to allow offshore processing was delayed this morning because the Government did not have the votes.

The Government was going to introduce the law for debate today.  After it became clear that they would lose the vote, they held an emergency cabinet meeting and delayed the vote for a later date.

The politician with the deciding vote, Mr Crook, said last night that he would not support the changes.  He said that the new law could stop asylum seekers trying to get to Australia by boat but he was worried about how the asylum seekers, especially children, would be treated in Malaysia.

Malaysia has not signed the United Nation’s Refugee Convention.

But Mr Crook said that he would support the law changes proposed by the Opposition because these would allow offshore processing in countries which have signed the Refugee Convention – like Nauru.

Nauru has recently signed the Refugee Convention and the Opposition would like asylum seekers arriving by boat to be sent there instead of Malaysia.

The Opposition says that the offshore processing centre in Nauru was successful in protecting Australia’s borders and deterring people smuggling.

The system, often called the Pacific Solution, was implemented by the Opposition between 2001 and 2007.  The Leader of the Opposition says that Nauru is a “proven solution for offshore processing”.

Almost all Australian politicians support offshore processing at the moment, suggesting that the Government and the Opposition only need to agree on which country the asylum seekers arriving by boat will be sent.

The Government said this morning that they "remained committed" to the Malaysia swap deal.

Decision to send asylum-seekers to Malaysia will be made next week

The High Court of Australia met on 22 and 23 August to consider the lawfulness of the Australian Government’s plan to send 800 asylum-seekers to Malaysia.

On August 8, refugee lawyers requested that the High Court prevent the Australian Government from sending the first group of 16 asylum-seekers to Malaysia under a deal that was made on 25 July to send 800 newly arriving boat people to Malaysia. In exchange Australia would accept 4,000 refugees registered with the UN in Malaysia over four years.

This week the High Court heard the legal arguments of refugee and government lawyers.

Refugee lawyers argue that Australian Immigration Minister Chris Bowen does not have the power to send asylum-seekers to Malaysia because Malaysia has not signed the UN Refugee Convention and therefore has no legal obligations to protect the asylum-seekers. The lawyers also argue that sending unaccompanied minors to Malaysia is not in their best interests.

Government lawyers say the agreement and declaration of Malaysia as a suitable destination is legal and does meet the obligations Australia has under the UN Refugee Convention. Australia's only obligation is to ensure protection of those with a well-founded fear of persecution.

Government lawyers told the court that Australia could declare a country a suitable place to send asylum-seekers regardless of whether it was a signatory to the UN Refugee Convention or have relevant domestic laws, which is consistent with the previous Government’s policy of sending asylum-seekers to Nauru.

After hearing both sides of the case, the High Court will deliver its verdict on Wednesday 31 August. Until then no asylum-seekers will be sent to Malaysia.

Five boats carrying 335 asylum-seekers, including 92 children of whom 39 are unaccompanied minors have arrived in Australia since the government signed the Malaysia deal on July 25.

World Refugee Day

The United Nations' (UN) World Refugee Day is observed on June 20 each year. This day is an international reminder to honor the courage, strength and determination of women, men and children who are forced to flee their homeland under threat of persecution, conflict and violence and cannot return to their homes without facing harm.

The terms "refugees", "migrants" and “asylum-seekers” are frequently used either interchangeably or in close association but there is a difference between them. An asylum-seeker is someone who leaves their country to go to a foreign country to seek international protection. If the asylum-seeker is successfully accepted by a foreign country that person then becomes a refugee.

Refugee status is a privilege only for those who are the most vulnerable and not for those that are able to live in their countries. For example, 13,003 Iranians applied for refugee status last year in 38 European countries and of those applicants 10,200 were rejected and returned to Iran. Many of those who were rejected were considered not to be under threat of death or persecution.

Another term sometimes heard is "economic migrant", a person who leaves their country or place of residence because they want to seek a better life. Often those who travel to foreign countries and are found to be economic migrants are sent back to their home country.

It has been sixty years since 147 governments expressed their solidarity with refugees by signing the 1951 Refugee Convention. However there are still countries that have not signed the convention. These governments are: Andorra, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Bhutan, Comoros, Cuba, East Timor, Eritrea, Grenada, Guyana, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Ivory Coast, Japan, Kosovo, Kuwait, Laos, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Micronesia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Burma, Nauru, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Qatar, St Lucia, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Syria, Taiwan, Thailand, Tonga and some others.

Countries that have not signed the convention are often seen to mistreat refugees and asylum-seekers. For example, in places such as Thailand, Malaysia, Japan, Pakistan, and Singapore, there have been documented cases of mistreatment of asylum-seekers in detention centres and at times detainees suffering problems from dehydration, hunger, exposure to the elements, beatings, and what some would even call torture.

Malaysia is one of the countries that has not signed the convention and is a good example. Andrew Khoo, who is Chair of the Malaysian Human Rights Committee describes conditions inside Malaysian detention as, “Nothing short of hell”. He describes the facilities as overcrowded, leaving detainees with poor sanitation and a lack of access to basic health care. Caning is another big issue in Malaysia, Amnesty International claims at least 10,000 prisoners and 6,000 refugees are caned there each year.

At the same time, foreign governments that have signed the convention are making life more difficult for asylum-seekers and refugees. This is because too many economic migrants are arriving illegally to foreign countries and lying to the authorities that they are asylum-seekers when really they just want a job and a better life. When there are too many economic migrants arriving illegally, foreign governments often make it harder for everyone to get a visa, including refugees and asylum-seekers.

Economic migrants must apply legally for a different visa and not a refugee visa if they want to be successfully accepted by a foreign country. Asylum-seekers should also not go illegally to a foreign country if they want to become a refugee. Asylum-seekers can apply legally to become a refugee in a foreign country through a UNHCR office in the region.