Australia-US refugee swap breaks law: rights group Thu Apr 19, 2:08 AM ET
SYDNEY (AFP) - An agreement between the United States and Australia to swap refugees held in offshore detention centres breaks international law, Human Rights Watch said Thursday.
The exchange would involve genuine refugees held by Australia on the remote Pacific island of Nauru and those held by the United States at its naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
"Refugees are human beings, not products that countries can broker and trade," said Bill Frelick, refugee policy director for the US-based rights group.
"The United States and Australia have signed a deal that bargains with lives and flouts international law."
The mainly Asian refugees intercepted heading for Australia would be considered for resettlement in the United States, while Cuban and Haitian asylum-seekers hoping to live there could be despatched to Australia.
The US State Department said the exchange would involve a maximum of 200 people a year.
"The only conceivable reason for this 'refugee swap' is to deter future asylum seekers from trying to reach the United States or Australia by boat," said Frelick.
"Yet international refugee protection principles hold that detention and similar measures should never be used solely as a deterrent to other would-be refugees."
The deal was apparently designed to deter refugees by frustrating their desire to join relatives and emigre communites and transporting them "halfway around the world," Human Rights Watch said in a statement.
US cities such as Miami have large Cuban populations and refugees would be unlikely to view Australia as a favoured destination.
But critics say the swap scheme could entice more refugees to head for Australia in the hope of being sent to the United States.
"We are providing the greatest incentive, a trip and residence in the United States for people who arrive in people-smuggling operations off (Australia's) Christmas Island," said opposition Labor party immigration spokesman Tony Burke.
Several opposition politicians and rights groups in Australia have described the agreement as "bizarre."
SYDNEY (AFP) - An agreement between the United States and Australia to swap refugees held in offshore detention centres breaks international law, Human Rights Watch said Thursday.
The exchange would involve genuine refugees held by Australia on the remote Pacific island of Nauru and those held by the United States at its naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
"Refugees are human beings, not products that countries can broker and trade," said Bill Frelick, refugee policy director for the US-based rights group.
"The United States and Australia have signed a deal that bargains with lives and flouts international law."
The mainly Asian refugees intercepted heading for Australia would be considered for resettlement in the United States, while Cuban and Haitian asylum-seekers hoping to live there could be despatched to Australia.
The US State Department said the exchange would involve a maximum of 200 people a year.
"The only conceivable reason for this 'refugee swap' is to deter future asylum seekers from trying to reach the United States or Australia by boat," said Frelick.
"Yet international refugee protection principles hold that detention and similar measures should never be used solely as a deterrent to other would-be refugees."
The deal was apparently designed to deter refugees by frustrating their desire to join relatives and emigre communites and transporting them "halfway around the world," Human Rights Watch said in a statement.
US cities such as Miami have large Cuban populations and refugees would be unlikely to view Australia as a favoured destination.
But critics say the swap scheme could entice more refugees to head for Australia in the hope of being sent to the United States.
"We are providing the greatest incentive, a trip and residence in the United States for people who arrive in people-smuggling operations off (Australia's) Christmas Island," said opposition Labor party immigration spokesman Tony Burke.
Several opposition politicians and rights groups in Australia have described the agreement as "bizarre."
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