Face-saving deal on refugee swap

Australia has come up with a new proposal which will ensure the asylum-seeker deal with Malaysia will be saved.

PETALING JAYA: The refugee swap deal may yet be saved with the Australian Labor government and the opposition considering a compromise plan, according to a news report in The Australian today.

The face-saving deal – to include Malaysian refugee swap and offshore processing on Nauru and Manus Island – appears to be the most likely solution to break the impasse.

The report said that the Labor government and the opposition are considering floating a deal which would allow offshore processing to go ahead, while allowing asylum seekers to be relocated to third countries such as Malaysia.

It added that opposition leader Tony Abbot has been briefed about the new plan by the Immigration Department, which made a strong pitch for both the Malaysian transfer and offshore processing.

Currently, both the Labor government of Prime Minister Julia Gillard and the opposition are refusing to cede ground following last week’s High Court ruling in Sydney that declared the Malaysian swap deal invalid and putting offshore processing in doubt.

The opposition prefers to reopen the detention centre on Nauru while the Labor government favours the Malaysian swap solution as the only effective deterrent against people-smugglers.

(On July 25, Malaysia and Australia signed the deal in Kuala Lumpur to swap 800 asylum seekers from Australia with 4,000 in Malaysia.)

Abbot said he was awaiting a formal proposal from the government.

“It’s up to the government to give us its new policy and at the moment the prime minister appears to be paralysed…” he was quoted on Nine’s Today Show.

Meanwhile, Gillard said that she will not dump her Malaysia swap deal, and appealed to Abbot to embrace her “Malaysia Solution”, according to The Australian.

She said the swap deal was the best way to “discourage asylum-seekers from paying people-smugglers to take them to Australia in dangerous boats”, adding she did not want to see “women and kids getting on boats potentially risking their lives”.

- Agencies