Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young says the government needs to seek stronger guarantees to uphold "human rights and dignity" following news that the federal government plans to send unaccompanied asylum-seeking children to Malaysia.
Ms Hanson-Young said the government was engaged in a "race to the bottom" with the opposition in terms of asylum-seeker policy, AAP reported.
The government's plan to send some child asylum seekers to Malaysia to have their claims for refugee status assessed has drawn sharp criticism from refugee advocates.
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Immigration Minister Chris Bowen has confirmed that children will be included in a plan to send 800 boatpeople to Malaysia for processing, in exchange for some 4,000 registered refugees from the Southeast Asian nation, AFP reported.
"I don't want unaccompanied minors, I don't want children getting on boats to come to Australia thinking or knowing that there is some sort of exemption in place," Bowen told ABC TV late Thursday.
Australia has already been criticised for the yet-to-be finalised scheme because Malaysia is not a signatory to the UN refugee convention and amid claims that asylum seekers sent to Malaysia could be caned.
Refugee advocates described the decision to include children in the "swap" as disappointing and potentially a breach of their human rights.
"The minister forgets that he is legally the guardian of unaccompanied minors," Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.
"The minister, for the sake of a political quick-fix, is prepared to expend the rights and obligations he should be offering to these very, very vulnerable children."
Ian Rintoul, from the Refugees Action Coalition, said the issue highlighted the problems inherent in sending boatpeople offshore for processing.
"I think it shows the human rights tragedy of trying to trade off the rights of one group against another group," he told AFP.
"From our point of view, we don't think anyone should be being sent back to Malaysia and the fact that the government is willing to send children back to Malaysia, it just shows the lengths the government is willing to go to."
Defending his decision, Bowen said he never wanted Australia to again have to bury children as a result of a boat accident, as happened in December when a wooden vessel carrying about 90 asylum seekers sank at Christmas Island.
That vessel disintegrated after smashing into cliffs in rough seas, throwing all onboard in the water and claiming more than 30 lives, including those of children and babies.
Thousands of asylum seekers flock by boat to Australia each year, many from Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.
