SWAP DEAL: Myanmar refugee Tial Za Eng Sung plays with her children and her young relative (right) in their flat in Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia is poised to receive the first batch of refugees under a swap deal with Australia aimed at helping both sides to tackle a rising influx of refugees. Under the agreement, Malaysia will receive 800 unprocessed asylum seekers from Australia which in return will accept 4,000 refugees whose claims have been approved for resettlement. — Reuters photo
MELBOURNE: The Australian government said it will stick to its plans to ship the latest asylum seeker arrivals to Malaysia, and will not grant exemptions to the large number of minors.
Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said those coming to Australia or who put their children on boats should work on the basis that they would be taken to Malaysia.
“No blanket exemptions. I’ll not have the situation where we provide a reward for people who put their children on a boat and undertake that dangerous journey,” he was quoted by the Australian Associated Press as saying.
The Australian Immigration Department yesterday confirmed there were 18 children among the latest boatload of asylum seekers.
The department said it had checked the ages of all asylum seekers who had claimed to be minors and found one to actually be an adult, bringing the number of children to 18, including 13 who were unaccompanied.
AAP said the high proportion of children on the vessel had been interpreted as a deliberate move by people smugglers to test Canberra’s resolve in implementing its Malaysian solution. — Bernama
Bowen said the government would adopt a case-by-case approach to any particular vulnerabilities among the asylum seekers.
“But I know, sure as night follows day, that if you’ve blanket exemptions people smugglers would exploit that loophole and put children on boats, and we’d be dealing with the dangerous situation of boatloads of children,” he said. — Bernama