PETALING JAYA: The refugee swap deal between Malaysia and Australia may have hit a legal snag but authorities here are still hopeful of an outcome to curb global human trafficking.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said no decision had been made over the fate of two facilities chosen as transit centres to house asylum seekers from Australia.
“We have not decided yet as things have been on hold since the Australian court's decision.
“It will depend on the Australian government's next course of action,” he said in an interview here yesterday.
Hishammuddin was referring to Rumah Cycle Carri and the Crescent Peak in Port Dickson which had been spruced up in anticipation of the asylum seekers' arrival.
Rumah Cycle is a colonial bungalow with two wooden chalets located in Jalan Pantai while Crescent Peak is a former hotel on the same stretch.
The asylum seekers were to spend a month at the facilities while their applications to either return to their homeland, go to a third country or seek asylum in Malaysia were being processed.
An Australian High Court's decision on Aug 31 had blocked the swap deal, which would have seen 800 asylum seekers in Australia being resettled here while 4,000 refugees in Malaysia would be sent over there.
The case was brought to the court by 16 asylum seekers, who were supposed to have been the first to be flown to Malaysia from the Australian territory of Christmas Island.
The court had ruled that they could not be sent to a country without adequate legal safeguards, noting that Malaysia had not signed the United Nations' Convention on Refugees and was not obliged under its domestic laws to protect their rights.
Hishammuddin said Malaysia would also continue to engage other countries in its efforts to fight international human trafficking syndicates.
“In the meantime, we will proceed on other initiatives with Bangladesh, Indonesia and China in our fight,” he said.
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