'Malaysia Deal' Best Way To Fight People Smuggling, Says Official

MELBOURNE, May 23 (Bernama) -- A regional agreement, such as the proposed asylum seeker swap deal with Malaysia, was the best way to combat people smuggling, an Australian Senate budget hearing in Canberra was told on Tuesday. Immigration Department acting secretary Martin Bowles said the number of irregular boat arrivals on Australian shores fell, while the Australian Government's Malaysia offshore processing plan was on the table, the Australian Associated Press (AAP) reports. He said fewer boats carrying asylum seekers reached Australia last year, after the Labor Government announced the Malaysia people-swap deal, under which 800 people would have been sent to Malaysia for processing, in exchange for 4,000 processed refugees. Once the plan stalled, after an adverse High Court decision and the opposition Liberal-National Party's refusal to back legislation to legitimise it, boat arrivals rose again. "What the numbers are telling me is that it did have a deterrent effect at the time," AAP quotes Bowles as telling the Senate committee. He also spoke of his recent visit to Indonesia, saying people smugglers there had strong networks and were attuned to policy decisions made by the government and other regional countries. He told the senators a regional arrangement would be the best way to reduce boat numbers. Liberal's Senator Michaelia Cash said Bowles was being "very generous" in his assessment of the government's Malaysia solution. The Liberal-National Party under the leadership of Tony Abbott refused to support the Malaysia deal because Malaysia had not signed the UN refugee convention. -- BERNAMA