FED:Malaysia deal will 'unravel': opposition

AAP General News (Australia)
08-01-2011
FED:Malaysia deal will 'unravel': opposition

By Katina Curtis

CANBERRA, Aug 1 AAP - The government's deal to send asylum seekers to Malaysia will
soon unravel, Acting Opposition Leader Julie Bishop says.

Ms Bishop believes people smugglers will send more boats to Australia to pressure the
government to change its stance.

The deal allows Australia to send 800 boat arrivals to Malaysia in exchange for settling
4000 confirmed refugees here over the next four years.

Ms Bishop fears the deal will unravel because in the 12 weeks since it was first announced
621 more people have arrived by boat.

"Already it's evident that the people-smuggling syndicates will put pressure on this
deal by sending more boats," she told reporters.

"My fear is that like everything else that the government touches this asylum seeker
swap deal will unravel shortly."

More than 500 boat people who arrived before the deal was signed last week will be
processed and settled in Australia.

But a boatload of 54 asylum seekers, intercepted on Sunday, will be the first group
processed under the new deal.

The government has refused to reveal how many, if any, minors are on board, with the
departments of immigration and customs both saying the arrivals were currently the other's
responsibility.

Independent senator Nick Xenophon said the government needed to answer questions about
what would happen to any children or unaccompanied minors on board that boat.

"I think children are in a clearly separate category," he said, adding that it was
a moral dilemma the government needed to deal with.

The government says there will be no blanket exemptions, but the opposition does not
believe this line.

Immigration spokesman Scott Morrison thought there would be "exemptions implemented routinely".

Senator Xenophon said it was too early to say if the deal was a success or failure.

"Over the coming weeks and months we'll know whether the Malaysian deal has been a
good deal for both countries and whether it's solved the problem that it's intended to
solve," he told reporters.

AAP klc/rl/jl/nb

KEYWORD: BOAT WRAP

� 2011 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.