Malaysia’s use of cane raised in refugee swap debate
By Jeremy Thompson, ABC News
The Federal Government is facing more criticism of its Malaysian asylum seeker swap deal, with Opposition, Greens and independent MPs questioning Malaysia’s human rights record.
A press report today quotes Amnesty International saying 6,000 detainees in Malaysia each year suffer the rattan cane, which “shreds the victim’s naked skin and turns tissue into pulp”.
Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison says Immigration Minister Chris Bowen cannot give a rock-solid undertaking that 800 asylum seekers Australia plans to send to Malaysia will not be caned.
“I would have thought this is a fairly fundamental, basic check-off in terms of the human rights issues that will need to be squared away if you were going to conclude this sort of deal,” Mr Morrison said.
Liberal Senator Eric Abetz says the Government should restore the so-called Pacific Solution.
“If you have offended against the law of Nauru or Malaysia, where would you prefer to be? It’s quite clear the Howard government’s Nauruan solution, the Pacific solution, worked, and what’s more, was more humane,” Senator Abetz said.
“All the people we sent to Nauru, none of them were submitted to caning.”
Greens MP Adam Bandt says sending asylum seekers to a country that has not agreed to abide by international law is not something his party can support.
And independent Senator Nick Xenophon says he cannot understand why the Government will not send asylum seekers to Nauru because it has not signed the UN Refugee Convention, but will send them to Malaysia which is not a signatory either.
He says Malaysia has a history in relation to human rights issues that is “less than exemplary”.
“I think the Government needs to get assurances, because it’s not going to be a good look that we send people who have sought asylum back to a country where they are subject to inhumane punishment,” Senator Xenophon said.
