Australia awaiting refugees from M'sia this week
Published: Aug 7, 2011 3:49 PM | Updated: Aug 7, 2011 5:10 PM
The first of 4,000 refugees that Australia has arranged to take from Malaysia will arrive this week, officials said today.
The first of 4,000 refugees that Australia has arranged to take from Malaysia will arrive this week, officials said today.
Under a deal unveiled in April and signed late last month, Australia will take the 4,000 over four years in return for Malaysia accepting 800 asylum seekers that arrive in Australia by boat from Indonesia.
The first to arrive in Australia will be a Burmese family who, like the rest, have been recognised by the UN as genuine refugees.
This week is also expected to see the first of the 800 covered by the one-off deal to arrive in Kuala Lumpur. Most are from the Middle East.
"Nobody will be able to doubt this government's resolve ... after they've seen this arrangement implemented," Immigration Chris Bowen told local television.
Australia is bearing the full cost of an initiative it hopes will choke off the flow of asylum seekers by undermining the sales pitch of people smugglers.
Most of the asylum seekers caught up in the swap deal will be returning to Malaysia, the South-East Asian country where they began their quest to get to Australia months or even years earlier.
Bowen's claim that the deal with Malaysia would deter unwanted arrivals was undermined by yet another boat arrival.
A boatload of 50 asylum seekers was picked up and is on its way to the Christmas Island detention centre.
Opposition Liberal Party immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said the boatload brought to 700 the number of asylum seekers who had arrived since the swap deal was announced April 7.
"Boats have been continually arriving at a rate of one per week since the Malaysian people-swap agreement was announced and since it was signed," he said.
-dpa
Under a deal unveiled in April and signed late last month, Australia will take the 4,000 over four years in return for Malaysia accepting 800 asylum seekers that arrive in Australia by boat from Indonesia.
The first to arrive in Australia will be a Burmese family who, like the rest, have been recognised by the UN as genuine refugees.
This week is also expected to see the first of the 800 covered by the one-off deal to arrive in Kuala Lumpur. Most are from the Middle East.
"Nobody will be able to doubt this government's resolve ... after they've seen this arrangement implemented," Immigration Chris Bowen told local television.
Australia is bearing the full cost of an initiative it hopes will choke off the flow of asylum seekers by undermining the sales pitch of people smugglers.
Most of the asylum seekers caught up in the swap deal will be returning to Malaysia, the South-East Asian country where they began their quest to get to Australia months or even years earlier.
Bowen's claim that the deal with Malaysia would deter unwanted arrivals was undermined by yet another boat arrival.
A boatload of 50 asylum seekers was picked up and is on its way to the Christmas Island detention centre.
Opposition Liberal Party immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said the boatload brought to 700 the number of asylum seekers who had arrived since the swap deal was announced April 7.
"Boats have been continually arriving at a rate of one per week since the Malaysian people-swap agreement was announced and since it was signed," he said.
-dpa
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