Human Rights Watch (HRW) has warned Australia’s prime minister, Julia Gillard, that her government will fall foul of international laws on the protection of refugees if it goes ahead with a plan to send failed asylum seekers to Malaysia.

In a letter to Gillard, Bill Frelick, refugee program director for HRW, and Brad Adams, Asia division executive director, said Friday: “We ask that you reconsider this agreement in light of Australia’s international human rights obligations and in anticipation of the unnecessary human suffering it is likely to cause.”

The Australian government is currently in talks with Malaysia over a bilateral deal which would see 4,000 recognized refugees resettled in Australia while 800 asylum seekers would be sent to Malaysia.

The move has upset human rights groups who fear for the safety and welfare of the 800 asylum seekers to be transferred, highlighting Malaysia’s poor track record for refugee protection.

Amnesty International has reported whippings, assaults and other ill-treatment faced by detained migrants in Malaysia which is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention and has no domestic refugee protection laws.

HRW has warned Canberra that its plan violates Australia’s legal commitments.

“Australia has an obligation not to expel persons to a country where there are substantial grounds for believing that they would face torture,” said the letter.

HRW also expressed concern that Refugee Convention signatories might be able to flout human rights obligations by trading refugees or migrants and subverting the principals of resettlement into a tool of migration control.

Frelick and Adams said the proposd agreement appears to be a ploy to discourage migrant attempts to reach Australian shores by boat, which could ultimately result in “lives of indefinite uncertainty and hardship in Malaysia.”

As bilateral talks continue behind closed doors, HRW has urged Gillard’s government to engage the UNHCR in resettlement cases to ensure the most vulnerable people are resettled, adding: “Resettlement should not be part of a quid pro quo deal that reflects a migration-control agenda.”

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