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Memorandum of Understanding Below are details of reasons why we should be gravely concerned at the secret Memorandum of Understanding which has been signed between Australia and Malaysia. It is redolent of rendition whereby one government, which has signed an agreement not to indulge in torture, hands a person over to another Government which has not signed the agreement. In this instance Australia which has signed an agreement not to refoule refugees (return refugees to persecution) and has a secret deal with Malaysia who has not signed the Refugee convention. As can be seen by the statements below Malaysia has no compunction about refoulement; i.e. returning people to places where they may suffer persecution. In short, Malaysia will do the dirty business for Australia. This is how we get around our inconvenient commitment to the Refugee Convention! Pamela Curr Australia and Malaysia have signed a memorandum of understanding to share a greater range of intelligence to combat people smuggling. Under the deal, Australia and Malaysia will work together to investigate organisers of people smuggling and escorts of "irregular migrants".
Malaysia has never given political asylum to anyone, and has no plan to change that policy, a senior Malaysian Foreign Ministry official said on Monday. Malaysia only gave temporary shelter to political refugees on humanitarian grounds, Ahmad Shabery Cheek, parliamentary secretary to the Foreign Ministry was quoted by Malaysia's national news agency Bernama as saying. The political asylum will be used as an excuse by groups which want to enter Malaysia for economic gain, he told the parliament. The official said giving refugees political asylum would saddle the government with unnecessary problems like providing them with jobs, homes and protection. It is also not within Malaysia's jurisdiction, he added. In addition, Ahmad Shabery noted that the Malaysian government did not recognize the identity card issued to refugees by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees office in Kuala Lumpur. The Malaysian government is not compelled to recognize and give the refugees protection and political asylum, he was quoted as saying by Bernama. http://english.people.com.cn/200704/03/eng20070403_363147.html
Malaysia will stand by its refusal to grant political asylum to refugees in spite of criticism that the government was not showing mercy to those facing violence and persecution in their countries, a top official with the Foreign Ministry said Monday. "Our worry is that the political asylum will be used as an excuse by groups which want to enter our country for economic gain," said the ministry's parliamentary representative, Ahmad Shabery Cheek. |