Demonstrators marched to an Australian immigration detention centre Sunday to protest a planned deal with Malaysia, under which hundreds of boatpeople will be removed to the Asian nation.
The Australian government is expected to this week 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.
Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor said negotiations were in the final stages, and the deal represented "an historic and innovative approach" to undermining the people-smugglers' business model.
"We want to treat people fairly," he told ABC Television, but refused to confirm a report that those shipped to Malaysia would be allowed to work. The report in the Sun-Herald said that the agreement, the details of which have not been released, would give the 800 asylum seekers a legal right to employment in Malaysia.
"These guys will have a recognised ability to work," an unnamed source told the paper. 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."
O'Connor 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 significant decline" 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," he said. "So we are already seeing, I think, impacts as a result of the announcement."
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