Sunday 15 May 2011
Thailand looking at Australian asylum seeker swap
A week ago Australia announced alterations to its immigration policy designed to break people-smuggling and stem the flood of boats carrying asylum seekers to its shores.
Under the changes, Australia has proposed sending 800 asylum seekers to Malaysia for processing and in return it will accept 4,000 people already assessed by the latter to be refugees for resettlement over four years.
Despite the Malaysia plan sparking criticism that Australia is returning to a disputed policy of banishing boat people to poor neighbours, Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said his country would be interested in a similar deal.
"The agreement between Australia and Malaysia on this particular model based on, I think, five to one ratio is something that the rest of us will be interested to look at," he said.
Speaking at a press conference late Saturday after talks in Bangkok with his Australian counterpart Kevin Rudd, Piromya said many countries were looking for a systematic way to deal with an influx of asylum seekers.
(AFP)
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