Malaysia says it will forge ahead with a controversial refugee swap deal with Australia that has drawn the ire of MPs in Canberra and human rights activists.
Australian officials met human rights groups and Malaysian authorities in Kuala Lumpur on Friday to discuss the issue, but Malaysian officials say no timetable has been set to finalise the agreement.
Malaysian home minister Hishammuddin Hussein insisted the deal was a way to discourage the increased smuggling of people from mainly impoverished and wartorn countries through Malaysia to Australia.
Under the deal, Australia would return 800 newly arrived asylum seekers to Malaysia, where their claims for asylum will be processed. In return, Australia will resettle 4,000 registered refugees from Malaysia over the next four years.
"Australia and Malaysia would like to think outside the box and find a solution, which nobody else has done. For all you know, it may work," Mr Hishammuddin said.
"We may be embarking on something that people might want to adopt 50 years from now... Business cannot be as usual," he added after meeting officials from Australia, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
Malaysian government leaders say the country has become a key transit point for smuggling gangs seeking to bring Sri Lankans, Pakistanis and others to Australia.
Mr Hishammuddin said there was no timetable to finalise the deal.
"I have to speak to my counterpart [in Australia]... But I'm confident in the level of trust and political will of both countries," he said.
The deal was first agreed upon in principle between the two countries in May, but its fate has been in doubt after rights groups said it would infringe on the basic rights of the asylum seekers.
Human rights activists in both countries have condemned the deal because Malaysia is not a signatory to the United Nations refugee convention and does not legally recognise refugee status.
Australia has given its assurance the rights of those who are returned would be protected.
Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said in a speech on Friday the Government was putting protections in place for the transferred asylum seekers. During his speech he was heckled by protesters who stormed the Sydney university theatre where he was speaking.
The Australian Government is also facing a High Court challenge after lawyers launched an action on behalf of a woman asylum seeker and her four-year-old son being held on Christmas Island.
The legal move came on the same day the Coalition and the Greens combined in Parliament to demand the Malaysia deal be abandoned.
Meanwhile, Nauru has taken a key step towards signing the UN refugee convention.
Nauru's secretary of justice has signed the instrument of accession to the United Nations convention.
The Federal Opposition has been demanding that Australia send asylum seekers to Nauru for processing.
It says Nauru signing the refugee convention strengthens that argument.
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