Rudd can't find logic in refugee swap dealFederal Opposition...

Rudd can't find logic in refugee swap deal

Federal Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd says the Government's deal to exchange up to 200 refugees and asylum seekers with the United States is strange.

Under a deal signed by Australian immigration authorities, asylum seekers detained on Nauru could be sent to the US within the next few months in return for Australia resettling refugees from Cuba who have been detained at Guantanamo Bay.

Prime Minister John Howard says the program sends a message to people smugglers that Australian authorities will not be intimidated.

"The thing that discourages people from people smuggling is the fact that we make it very plain that people will not be allowed to reach the Australian mainland, that they will be processed off shore," he said.

"We're not going to have our very generous humanitarian refugee program distorted by people smugglers."

But, as he prepared to leave Sydney for the US this afternoon, Mr Rudd backed Labor's immigration spokesman, who has criticised the plan.

"I'm struggling with where all of that goes in terms of logic," he said.

"Maybe I'm someone who just doesn't get it at the moment.

"Of course there's an argument which Tony Burke I think has put himself today is that in effect, Mr Howard is also saying to anyone seeking to come here as an asylum seeker, Australia becomes a halfway house to the United States."

Greens Senator Kerry Nettle says it is a bizarre plan and she is sceptical about the Government's motives for signing the deal.

"This is about political mates helping each other out," she said.

"Immigration issues in Australia and in the United States have been issues that conservative governments have sought to stand up on and they're now helping each other out.

"It's nothing more than a political fix in the lead-up to the election campaign."

The Refugee Council of Australia says the Government is trying to save face by agreeing to the refugee exchange program.

The council's John Gibson says the policy provides the Government with an easy way to deal with the 82 Sri Lankan asylum seekers currently on Nauru.

He says the Government now does not have to send the group to Indonesia, which would have contravened international obligations.

"The Government has obviously been searching for an option that would lead to them not being sent back to a country of persecution and would essentially maintain the line that they have been taking all along in relation to the Pacific Solution," he said.