Malaysia willing to swap refugees with any country, says Hisham
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 25 — Malaysia is open to pursuing refugee swap deals with any country that is interested in combating human trafficking, Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin reiterated today.
“Anybody who wants to work with us. But it has to be a source country, transit country or destination country,” he said when asked if Malaysia is willing to offer the same deal to countries other than Australia.
The Australian Labour government and its opposition failed to revive an aborted refugee swap deal with Malaysia after talks between the two parties collapsed yesterday over the security of refugees.
The opposition Coalition had insisted on additional safeguards which would ensure “protection of law” for refugees, brushing aside Putrajaya’s assurance that the refugees will not be ill-treated in Malaysia.
The “Malaysia Solution”, which would have seen Australia send 800 asylum seekers to Malaysia and accept 4,000 refugees in return, was ruled invalid by Australia’s High Court in August because Malaysia has not signed the UN refugee convention.
Hishammuddin also lamented the failure of the Australian government to break the impasse over the deal, stressing that the current UN model used to combat human trafficking has failed.
“It’s unfortunate the understanding we’ve reached (with Canberra) has not been translated into action because of the Australian government, not us,” he said.
“If viewed honestly and sincerely without any politicising, I believe that that’s the model for combating and reducing the crime of human trafficking in our globalised world.”
With Canberra agreeing to foot the RM1 billion bill for the swap deal, the Gillard administration’s popularity has sunk under pressure from opposition leaders and human rights activists in Australia and Malaysia.
Attempts by Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard to amend the Migration Act to circumvent the court’s decision were thwarted after the opposition refused to back the changes unless Malaysia was disqualified owing to its shoddy human rights record.
Gillard’s minority government has a one-seat majority but relies on support from a Green MP and three independent ones. The Greens have opposed the swap deal and Gillard was unable to convince any opposition MP to support the legislation.
Hishamuddin’s ministry has since moved to secure a similar deal with Myanmar, which has also come under fire from activists and opposition leaders who say it will expose Myanmar refugees to persecution when they are sent home.