Australia and Malaysia are close to sealing a deal that would see 800 asylum-seekers now in Australia be swapped with 4,000 asylum-seekers currently in Malaysia, an official in Canberra said today.

The spokesperson for Immigration Minister Chris Bowen was responding to a report by national broadcaster ABC that Canberra and Kuala Lumpur had already reached agreement and all that remained was for the signatures of Bowen and his Malaysian counterpart.

The sticking point in the swap arrangement announced May 7 has been Canberra’s insistence on those deported from Australia being treated differently from the 90,000, mostly Burmese, foreigners seeking to make new lives in Malaysia.

Canberra wants the 800 sent to Malaysia to be immune from prosecution on immigration offences on release from six weeks in a purpose-built holding centre in Kuala Lumpur.

Those sent to Australia will be United Nations-recognised asylum-seekers and mostly Burmese. Those deported from Australia to Malaysia are likely to be mostly Middle Easterners, who reached Australia by boat from Indonesia.

Australia will pay all costs, estimated to be A$300 million (US$318 million).

Australia hopes the deal, which will see some of the asylum-seekers returned to a country they left months or even years earlier, will deter those contemplating setting out for a chance at

settlement in Australia.

- dpa