MALAYSIA, AUSTRALIA AGREE ON COOPERATIVE TRANSFER OF ASYLUM SEEKERS

KUALA LUMPUR, May 7 (Bernama) -- In a move to combat people smuggling and
irregular migration in the Asia-Pacific region, Malaysia and Australia Saturday
announced a new bilateral arrangement which entails among others, an agreement
for a cooperative transfer of asylum seekers.

In a statement issued by both governments, they said that under the new
arrangement, asylum seekers arriving by sea in Australia would be transferred to
Malaysia.

In exchange, Australia would expand its humanitarian programme and take on a
greater burden-sharing responsibility for resettling refugees currently residing
in Malaysia, the statement said.

Both prime ministers agreed that the core elements of the arrangement would
include the transfer of 800 irregular maritime arrivals, who arrived in
Australia after the date of effect of the arrangement, to Malaysia, for refugee
status determination.

"In return, over four years, Australia will resettle 4,000 refugees already
currently residing in Malaysia," the statement added.

The statement said that the transferees would not receive any preferential
treatment over asylum seekers already in Malaysia.

"Transferees will be provided with the opportunity to have their asylum
claims considered and those in need of international protection will not be
refouled," it said.

Both governments also pledged to treat transferees "with dignity and respect
and in accordance with human rights standards."

Australia would fully fund the arrangement, it added.

Both leaders said the bilateral agreement signed by both of them was part of
the Regional Cooperation Framework agreed to at the Bali Process Ministerial
Conference in Bali, Indonesia on March 30 this year.

They said that both countries were working closely with the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organisation for
Migration (IOM) to operationalise the arrangement.

Najib and Gillard said the complex nature of irregular migration, which they
said was closely linked to the crimes of human trafficking and people smuggling,
cannot be solved by acting alone but "must be tackled by countries forming
cooperative arrangements under the auspices of regional and international
frameworks."

They said the implementation of this one-off pilot project would be
important "to undermine the business model of transnational criminal syndicates"
particularly in people smuggling and human trafficking in this region.

The Malaysian and Australian governments had asked senior officials to
finalise a memorandum of understanding in the near future to set out detailed
arrangements, the statement added.