So am I missing something?

[sami]

This really doesn't seem like a terribly bad plan:

The Prime Minister today announced a new agreement being reached with Malaysia, whereby 800 asylum seekers arriving at Australia by boat will be transferred directly to Malaysia and be processed there. In return, Australia will accept 4,000 additional (increasing our humanitarian immigration quota) refugees that have already been processed in Malaysia.

The idea behind this is to try and attack the "business model" of people smugglers, because they're parasites preying on the desperate, and they get people killed (or just kill them themselves).

Unless I'm missing something important, this is actually positive progress.

Am I?

Comments

[fred_mouse]

If I have understood it correctly, Malaysia is not a signatory to the relevant UNHCR agreement, and thus the rights that the refugees would have under UN law in Australia, they won't get in Malaysia.

(hopefully this makes sense. I have the vague this evening).

[sami]

True, Malaysia is not a signatory, but this doesn't automatically mean they're going to be shot on sight. And the UNHCR has said that this arrangement *is* going to be an improvement on the existing situation. (Additionally, it's been suggested that this will contribute to increasing pressure for Malaysia to *become* a signatory.)