The Australian government faced a legal challenge today to its plan to swap refugees with Malaysia.

Lawyers for a Kurdish refugee family who face being split up under the swap deal launched an action in the High Court in Sydney that could undermine the government’s plan to send new asylum seekers to another country for processing.

The wife and four-year-old son of a refugee face being deported to Malaysia because they arrived on Australian soil after the government announced all new arrivals would be sent to Malaysia.

Their husband and father arrived in Australia 18 months ago and has been accepted as a refugee, although he is still being held in detention.

“This case is about stopping the government from permanently splitting up a family,” lawyer for the family David Manne said.

Manne said the plan to send new arrivals to Malaysia and in return take 4,000 refugees being held in Malaysian detention centres was a breach of international refugee conventions.

But Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said the planned swap deal with Malaysia would withstand a High Court challenge.

“We believe that the arrangements with Malaysia are on very, very strong legal grounds indeed,” Bowen said.

The legal challenge came a day after the government lost a vote in parliament condemning the so-called Malaysian solution.

- dpa