Amnesty International says it holds grave concerns for the fate of any asylum seekers sent to Malaysia under the Australian Government's new deal.
The federal government rejected criticism of its plan to send 800 asylum seekers to Malaysia for processing, insisting it is not a return to a disputed policy of banishing boat people to poor Pacific nations.
It also cited the fact that it was taking in 4,000 refugees in exchange as evidence that the deal announced Saturday would deter asylum seekers as part of a plan it hopes will lead to a regional solution to people smuggling.
Malaysia is not a signatory to the UN Refugee Convention, and an Amnesty International report released just last year documented serious human rights abuses against refugees.
"We have a country like Australia that has signed the Convention sending people to a country that hasn't signed the Convention, and where we know refugee protection is deeply problematic," said Amnesty International Australia's refugee spokesman, Dr Graham Thom.
Amnesty International's 2010 report A Blow to Humanity: Torture by Judicial Caning in Malaysia stated that 6000 refugees are caned there every year.
"Across Malaysia, government officials regularly tear into the flesh of prisoners with rattan canes travelling up to 160km/h.
The cane shreds the victim's naked skin, turns the fatty tissue into pulp, and leaves permanent scars that extend all the way to muscle fibres," the report stated.
Church 'shocked by refugee swap'
The Uniting Church says it's shocked by the "cruel and punitive plan".
"It is one of the truly low points in Australian politics that a government has made a deal to trade people like commodities," said Reverend Elenie Poulos, the church's national director for justice.
"We should not be trading people and we should not be trading one set of obligations for another."
The church has written to all federal Labor parliamentarians about the deal.
President of the Uniting Church in Australia, Reverend Alistair Macrae, said he welcomed a commitment to increase the numbers of refugees Australia accepts.
"But engineering a swap to punish people who are exercising their right to seek asylum is a punitive attempt to score cheap political points," he said.
"Malaysia is not a signatory to the UN Refugee Convention and it has a record of human rights abuses against asylum seekers and refugees."
The letter sent by the church asks the politicians to answer a number of questions, including how will the 800 people be chosen, will children be sent to Malaysia and how will the safety of those people be guaranteed.
Rev Poulos said politicians in Australia were engaged in a "race to the bottom".
"We have lost the capacity to empathise, to imagine what it would be like for us, what lengths we might go to, to save our lives and secure a hopeful future for our children," she added.
Deal 'may breach international agreements'
The Refugee Immigration Legal Centre's David Manne says Australia must tread carefully to ensure it is not in serious breach of international agreements.
"This could well violate Australia's basic obligations to asylum seekers and refugees who come here by sending them, expelling them, to a situation where they could well face serious dangers in Malaysia", he told SBS.
Greens want to know legal advice on Malaysia deal
The Greens have called on the federal government to release its legal advice on the planned asylum seeker swap with Malaysia.
Senator Sarah Hanson-Young says it breaches international law and there's a big question mark over whether it may also breach the government's own migration act.
She says that although the United Nations' refugee agency will be involved, it can only do so much to protect the 800 asylum seekers who'll be transferred from Australia to Malaysia for processing, while Australia takes four thousand declared refugees from Malaysia in return.
The Greens senator says she's dismayed the debate has sunk to a level where the trading of people including women and children is considered an immigration solution.
Abbott says deal appalling
Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says the deal is appalling and will haemorrhage cash from Australia.
"The problem with this deal is that for every one they take we take five of theirs and we pay for the whole lot."
Australia was haemorrhaging cash because Ms Gillard was too proud to pick up the phone to the president of Nauru.
"If we were to send illegal boat arrivals to Nauru there would be no question of bringing people back from Nauru because there aren't any currently in Nauru."
The Howard government processed illegal boat arrivals on the island nation of Nauru under its so-called Pacific Solution but the government has previously ruled out the option, saying it was not suitable for processing refugees because it was not a signatory to UNHCR refugee conventions.
Mr Abbott said Malaysia also was not a signatory to UNHCR conventions. "It's just another panicked, desperate thought-bubble from a government which is literally drowning in problems of its own making," he said.
Mr Abbott said the only way to deal with the asylum-seeker issue was to return to Howard government policies.
"Go back to the policies that worked, the policies that the coalition supports, that's Nauru, Manus (Island in Papua New Guinea), temporary protection visas and a willingness to turn boats around when it's safe to do so."
Government defends deal
Treasurer Wayne Swan insisted the plan was a regional solution under the Bali framework on tackling people smuggling and would involve the UN refugee agency, which was not involved in former prime minister John Howard's Pacific Solution.
"Nothing would contrast more than that with the previous approach of the previous government," Swan said as the government defended its decision.
'UNHCR involved in discussions'
Immigration Minister Chris Bowen has told the ABC the conditions of the agreement between the two governments bind the Malaysians to treat the refugees fairly.
"People are perfectly entitled to make those points. We've talked these issues through with Malaysia. Malaysia has given that very firm commitment about dignity and humanity for asylum seekers".
"The UNHCR* has been involved in these discussions, and the UNHCR is not an organisation which gets involved in discussions where they have concerns about the way that people will be treated," he said.
Ms Wong has told Sky News the issue of people smuggling is a regional one and should be dealt with accordingly.
"This is a tough policy area and the only person who pretends there is an easy solution is Tony Abbott, because he wants people to believe it.
"But I think people know this is a tough policy area, we need a regional approach because no one country can deal with this on its own. So this agreement with Malaysia is a very important part of that".
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