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Australia and Malaysia are close to signing a deal to trade asylum seekers - with Malaysia taking 800 of ours now and us taking 4000 of theirs over four years.
The deal answers the persistent criticism that the government lacks a credible plan to acquire an extra 3200 asylum seekers.
The threat of being sent to Malaysia is expected to act as a strong deterrent to asylum seekers from such benighted countries as Singapore.
And also possibly Malaysia.
Some will ask why we’re exporting raw asylum seekers to be processed and assembled in Malaysia and sold back here at higher prices.
But immigration minister Chris Bowen is talking up the plan. “Nobody should doubt our resolve to break the people smugglers’ business model,” he quipped.
