Source/Credit: Amnesty International
By AI | August 8, 2011
Amnesty International has welcomed the High Court's extension of the injunction stopping the deportation of the first group of asylum seekers to Malaysia. The human rights organisation is horrified that the Australian Government is continuing to try to make an example out of vulnerable people, including unaccompanied children.
“Today’s High Court decision vindicates Amnesty International’s stance that the Malaysia deal is inhumane, inappropriate and potentially illegal under Australian and international law,” said Amnesty International’s refugee spokesman Dr. Graham Thom.
“Amnesty International remains seriously concerned whether proper checks have been carried out to identify vulnerable asylum seekers, and believes it is clearly not in the children’s best interests to be sent to Malaysia – a country with an appalling track record of mistreating refugees and asylum seekers.”
Amnesty International has documented numerous human rights violations commonly faced by asylum seekers in Malaysia including caning, arbitrary detention, labour exploitation and sexual abuse. Refugee children often live in shocking conditions and have severely limited access to education and health care.
“This deal is not punishing people smugglers, it is punishing children. The Minister as their legal guardian is supposed to act in the best interest of unaccompanied children, not send them to face serious abuse in the slums of Kuala Lumpur,” said Dr Thom.
“Expelling unaccompanied children to Malaysia compounds the trauma they have already suffered and is in clear breach of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child."
Read original post here: Malaysia deal punishes children, not people smugglers
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