Canberra, June 3(ANI): Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard overlooked human-rights issues while announcing a deal with Malaysia last month over asylum seekers, Federal Opposition Immigration spokesman Scott Morrison has said.
"A month ago, the Prime Minister rushed out a panicked deal where the ink was not only not dry, it wasn't even in the well. Clearly, issues relating to human-rights concerns and issues of these matters had not been resolved and we have a Prime Minister who said these issues would be addressed," thetelegraph.com.au quoted Morrison, as saying.
Morrison said asylum seekers would not be caned if they were sent to facilities on Nauru, which was the policy under the former Coalition government.
"It is the law under the Malaysian migration act that illegal immigrants can be caned, so this is an arrangement where the coalition has repeatedly raised our concerns about this deal, which has not been thought through," Morrison said.
The Australian Government had earlier announced its proposal to send 800 asylum seekers to Malaysia in exchange for 4000 already processed refugees.
A draft agreement between Australia and Malaysia obtained by ABC Television's Lateline programme shows Malaysia wants a veto power over the 800 asylum seekers the Australian Government plans to transfer. Emails also show Malaysian officials do not want the final agreement to use the term 'human rights' in its introduction. (ANI)
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