The Australian government is this week expected to ink a deal in Kuala Lumpur under which Malaysia will take 800 asylum seekers who have arrived in Australia by boat in exchange for the resettlement of 4,000 of their refugees.
The proposed deal, which has drawn criticism because Malaysia is not a signatory to the UN convention on refugees, is part of Canberra's push to develop a regional solution to people smuggling.
About 200 people protested the impending agreement outside Sydney's Villawood immigration detention centre on Sunday.
"We're here to say 'no' to the Malaysia solution," Ian Rintoul from the Refugee Action Coalition said. "It's going to violate the human rights of the 800 asylum seekers coming here."
The Australian government has said the deal is designed to stop people risking their lives trying to get to Australia by boat, and since it was announced in early May, there had been a "very significantdecline" in asylum seekers making the journey.
"Five hundred or so people have arrived, compared with what would have been 1,700 in the same period last year," said Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor.
"So we are already seeing, I think, impacts as a result of the announcement."
The deal comes as Canberra, which has a policy of mandatory detention for asylum seekers until their claim for refugee status is resolved, is facing rising tensions in some of its detention centres over the processing of claims.
Activists in Malaysia also will be demonstrating outside the Mandarin OrientalHotel in Kuala Lumpur on Monday to protest what they say will in effect be the signing of an "illegal refugee outsourcing" deal.
Some have observed that the deal could breach Australia's obligations under the 1951 Refugee Convention, as the protections afforded those sent to Malaysia might not meet required human rights standards.
Malaysia - which is not a signatory to the Refugee Convention - does not have a policy of recognising refugees, and has often been criticised for treating asylum-seekers harshly as 'illegal immigrants'.
The immigration department said Sunday about 60 inmates were taking part in a peaceful protest at the Scherger detention centre in Queensland, with about 50 of these engaged in voluntary starvation.
Refugee activists said one asylum seeker protesting at Scherger had cut his throat Saturday while another had cut his arm.
Pamela Curr from the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre said Saturday some of the men had been in detention for 22 months, "sitting and waiting quietly" but they had now lost hope and had resorted to action.
- Agencies
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.