What does an asylum seeker face on entering Australian waters under Australia’s new processing deal with Malaysia?

The journey for at least the next 800 boat people to sail to Australia will be longer and still uncertain, refugee advocates say, despite the $296 million “swap” scheme signed between the two countries on Monday.

The Department of Immigration’s guidelines for carrying out the policy offers welfare and security privileges for “transferred” refugees, including initial financial support, minimal stay in a detention centre and special UNHCR passports granting refugees employment, education and healthcare rights. “Following departure from the Transit centre, Transferees will enjoy an adequate standard of treatment,” the Immigration Department’s Operational Guidelines to Support Transfers and Resettlement ensures.

But refugee groups say question marks hover over whether the policy is feasible and can be regulated or entrusted by the firm handed and reportedly corrupt Malaysian authorities. As the United Nationals High Commissioner for Refugees said on Monday: “The arrangement and its implementing guidelines contain important protection safeguards … The critical test of this arrangement will now be in its implementation both in Australia and Malaysia.”

Based on the policy detail and anecdotes from advocates and journalists, Crikey tracks the journey …

Australia: the arrival

The government says it will process refugee claims before transferring them to Malaysia within 72 hours of boat arrivals on Australian soil. But refugee support networks are unconvinced that the process of ascertaining these individuals’ refugee status, along with chartering a flight and arranging Australian security to accompany the refugees on the plane, is achievable in such a short time frame.

Until now, asylum seekers arriving in Australia can wait up to 12 months on police checks and security. The Asylum Seekers Resource Centre’s Pamela Curr questions why the government hasn’t processed previous claims for asylum quicker if they are making an exception now. She believes the 800 refugees will be stationed at Christmas Island for at least a week.

Asylum seekers with relatives living in Australia will also be sent to Malaysia unless they are spouses or children.

The flight

The government will cover air fares and provide Australian immigration officers to assist refugees on the plane flight and hand them over to Malaysian authorities, ensuring they exit the aircraft wilfully.

Malaysia: on the ground

“Transferees” will then be taken to a detention centre in Kuala Lumpur for up to 45 days where they will be screened by the Malaysian police and have a health assessment conducted by the IOM. Transferees who are denied refugee status will be deported, unless they gain international protection by human rights conventions, upon which Australia claims it will consider intervening.

Receiving ID cards

Malaysia has accumulated more than 90,000 asylum seekers because of its strict residency policy where only individuals who gain visas outside the country are allowed to stay lawfully. Australia’s transferees will be granted special exemption “passports” — allowing them to reside in the country and have access to health and education facilities — but they won’t gain lawful status or security in the country.

The Refugee Council of Australia’s Sophie Peer says the Australian government should process visas for Malaysia-bound transferees instead of issuing refugee passports that could lead to targeting and discrimination.

Access to welfare

The Australian government will give ID card holders one month’s allowance and hotel accommodation, along with allowances to work, education and healthcare facilities.

Transferees’ access to education will be limited to volunteer-run schools already offered to refugees in Malaysia, which may not be available full time. On Monday, ABC reporter Zoe Daniels said Immigration Minister Chris Bowen admitted to her that transferees will not have access to Malaysia’s public system.

Refugee advocates also wonder how under-skilled transferees experiencing a language barrier will find work. Said Curr: “It may be difficult to snap up employment if you herd sheep on a hill in Afghanistan all your life.”

Transferees’ access to healthcare facilities also seems hazy. According to Peer, the government hasn’t identified the whereabouts of the health centre, the services it will provide, or what happens if patients don’t have their ID cards with them. “We assume it’s a UNHCR facility, but it’s not open at night,” Peer said. “There’s a hotline that’s also available, but it doesn’t run 24/7 … We understand the UNHCR is strained over there, but raids happen at night and these people need access.”

Uncertainty also surrounds the UNHCR’s ability to keep track of Australia’s 800 transferees who may move from house to house.

Integration process

The great ethnic diversity and pockets of  refugee communities in KL might aid transferees’ assimilation process. But refugee advocates fear the dangerous repercussions transferees may face upon being favoured ahead of refugees who have been denied rights in Malaysia for decades.

They predict the view of favouritism could cause refugees in Malaysia to reject, discriminate or riot against the 800 transferees. “One would assume that refugees would connect with their communities,” said Peer. “But then there’s the problem that … they rock up on your doorstep and know you’ll be resettled in Finland, you might not be accepted in community.”

Third country settlement is not guaranteed but is part of the deal, as Curr says the mounting expenses for the program over the years may lead the government to influence UNHCR to resettle its transferees.

Refugees under Malaysian law

Refugees currently living in Malaysia have given accounts of succumbing to bribe police officers in order to avoid prison time or caning. On Monday, after travelling to Malaysia, Amnesty International’s refugee spokesman Graham Thom said: “Refugees in Malaysia are commonly abused, abandoned and exploited. Despite previous Malaysian government assurances we know they are at risk of being caned and locked up in horrifying conditions.”

Reporting from KL on 7.30,  Zoe Daniels interviewed two refugees who said immigration police raided their house, claiming the men were illegal immigrants despite their confirmed refugee status, and proceeded to cane them. The Age also met a Burmese refugee who was locked up for three months and caned and whipped despite his refugee status.