Australia’s plan to include children among 800 asylum-seekers to be sent to Malaysia to have their refugee claims assessed has come under attack from refugees and rights advocacy groups.
Australian Immigration Minister Chris Bowen has confirmed that unaccompanied minors will be included in a plan to send 800 boatpeople to Malaysia for processing.
In exchange, Australia will accept about 4,000 registered refugees from the Southeast Asian nation.
“I don’t want unaccompanied minors, I don’t want children getting on boats to come to Australia thinking or knowing that there is some sort of exemption in place,” Bowen told ABC TV late on Thursday.
Australia has already been criticized for the yet-to-be finalized scheme because Malaysia is not a signatory to the UN refugee convention and following claims that asylum-seekers sent to Malaysia could be caned.
Refugee advocates described the decision to include those aged under 18 in the “swap” as disappointing and potentially a breach of their human rights.
“Under Australian law the [immigration] minister is personally responsible as guardian for the welfare of unaccompanied children,” said David Manne from the Melbourne-based Refugee and Immigration Legal Centre.
“These children are here now, the minister has a legal responsibility to act in their best interests,” he said.
“And it’s difficult to see how it could be best for these children to be expelled from Australia to a country that has such a consistently poor record in the treatment of refugees, including children.”
Ian Rintoul, from the Refugees Action Coalition, said the issue highlighted the problems inherent in sending boatpeople offshore for processing.
“I think it shows the human rights tragedy of trying to trade off the rights of one group against another group,” he said.
Amnesty International and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Australia also called on the government to reconsider the decision, saying Canberra would be placing young people in a vulnerable situation.
“To send children to a country where there are no guarantees of access to an education, health care and welfare is seemingly a breach of our legal obligations, as well as lacking care and compassion,” UNICEF Australia chief executive Norman Gillespie said in a statement.
The government said that while it had been a difficult decision it would prevent children risking their lives making the perilous boat journey to Australia, adding that the human rights of all asylum-seekers would be respected.
Defending his decision, Bowen said he never wanted Australia to again have to bury children as a result of a boat accident, as happened in December when a wooden vessel carrying about 90 asylum-seekers sank near Christmas Island.
That vessel disintegrated after smashing into cliffs in rough seas, throwing all onboard in the water and claiming almost 50 lives, including those of children and babies.
Bowen said the deal with Malaysia would reflect a commitment to all asylum-seekers being treated with dignity and respect.
The number of asylum-seekers arriving in Australia by boat topped 6,800 last year and so far 1,437 passengers have arrived on illegal boats this year.
Canberra’s plan to halt the arrivals by sending the asylum-seekers offshore has been compared by the local media to the previous government’s “Pacific Solution,” under which boatpeople were held on the tiny state of Nauru and Manus island in Papua New Guinea, while their claims were assessed.
That policy was branded “inhumane” by human rights groups before it was repealed by Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s center-left Labor Party in 2007.
FRAUD ALLEGED: The leader of an opposition alliance made allegations of electoral irregularities and called for a protest in Tirana as European leaders are to meet Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama’s Socialist Party scored a large victory in parliamentary elections, securing him his fourth term, official results showed late on Tuesday. The Socialist Party won 52.1 percent of the vote on Sunday compared with 34.2 percent for an alliance of opposition parties led by his main rival Sali Berisha, according to results released by the Albanian Central Election Commission. Diaspora votes have yet to be counted, but according to initial results, Rama was also leading there. According to projections, the Socialist Party could have more lawmakers than in 2021 elections. At the time, it won 74 seats in the
A Croatian town has come up with a novel solution to solve the issue of working parents when there are no public childcare spaces available: pay grandparents to do it. Samobor, near the capital, Zagreb, has become the first in the country to run a “Grandmother-Grandfather Service,” which pays 360 euros (US$400) a month per child. The scheme allows grandparents to top up their pension, but the authorities also hope it will boost family ties and tackle social isolation as the population ages. “The benefits are multiple,” Samobor Mayor Petra Skrobot told reporters. “Pensions are rather low and for parents it is sometimes
CANCER: Jose Mujica earned the moniker ‘world’s poorest president’ for giving away much of his salary and living a simple life on his farm, with his wife and dog Tributes poured in on Tuesday from across Latin America following the death of former Uruguayan president Jose “Pepe” Mujica, an ex-guerrilla fighter revered by the left for his humility and progressive politics. He was 89. Mujica, who spent a dozen years behind bars for revolutionary activity, lost his battle against cancer after announcing in January that the disease had spread and he would stop treatment. “With deep sorrow, we announce the passing of our comrade Pepe Mujica. President, activist, guide and leader. We will miss you greatly, old friend,” Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi wrote on X. “Pepe, eternal,” a cyclist shouted out minutes later,
MIGRATION: The Supreme Court justices said they were not deciding whether Trump could legally use the Alien Enemies Act to deport undocumented migrants US President Donald Trump on Friday lashed out at the US Supreme Court after it blocked his bid to resume deportations of alleged Venezuelan gang members, saying the justices are “not allowing me to do what I was elected to do.” Trump’s berating of the high court, in a post on Truth Social, came after it dealt another setback to his attempt to swiftly expel alleged Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang members using an obscure wartime law, the 1798 Alien Enemies Act (AEA). Trump has been at loggerheads with the judiciary ever since he returned to the White House, venting
RSS