MALAYSIAN BAR COUNCIL ASK GOV'T TO REJECT CHILDREN SWAP

Thirteen unaccompanied children are part of a group of 55 asylum seekers bound for Malaysia.

SYDNEY, Australia - The Malaysian Bar Council has called on its government to refuse to accept any unaccompanied children seeking asylum under the swap deal with Australia.
Thirteen unaccompanied children are part of a group of 55 asylum seekers who are having health and security checks on Christmas Island, pending removal to Malaysia.
Bar Council president Lim Chee Wee says the Malaysian government should refuse to take them.
"Any unaccompanied minor being transferred to Malaysia would be a violation on the part of Australia on the Convention of the Rights of the Child," he said.

• "That should be the position of the Malaysian government. Anything else would be irresponsible on the part of Australia and Malaysia."
• The Federal Government says the children will be assessed on a case-by-case basis but any asylum seekers who arrive by boat can expect to be sent to Malaysia.

Immigration Minister Chris Bowen(right photo) has repeated the Prime Minister's message that there will be no blanket exemptions.
"I will not have the situation where we provide a reward for people who put their children on a boat, and undertake that dangerous journey," he said.
"If you have blanket exemptions, people smugglers would exploit that loophole and put children on boats and we'd be dealing with the dangerous situation of boatloads of children."

• But Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop(right photo) said the Government had painted itself into a corner.
• "It either allows unaccompanied children to be taken to Malaysia to an uncertain fate where the Australian Government has no control over what happens to them, or the Government caves in to the people smugglers," she said. Ms Bishop said either was a diabolical outcome for asylum seekers and a bad outcome for Australia.
• Earlier, human rights lawyer Andrew Khoo, who is part of the Malaysian Bar's Human Rights Committee, said the deal might breach Australia's legal responsibilities and warned that unaccompanied children might be preyed on by criminal gangs.

The deal was also criticized by Western Australian Premier Colin Barnett(left photo), who said Australia was "failing in humanity" by sending unaccompanied children to Malaysia.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said the integrity of the Malaysia solution will depend on whether vulnerable asylum seekers are given the care they need.

Source: ABC