Deal to send 800 boat people from Australia to Malaysia will be signed within weeks - and includes a plan to give each refugee a barcode for indentification as soon as they arrive.
Senior Home Affairs officials said the refugees who arrive in the country will not be given special treatment.
During a one-hour meeting with opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison, Malaysian Home Affairs senior deputy secretary-general Dato Alwi bin Haji Ibrahim detailed how the refugee swap would work. The deal is set to be signed in early July.
The only remaining "sticking point" is which country would be responsible for sending immigrants back to their country if they did not meet the refugee criteria. Each of the 800 boat people who arrive in Malaysia will be screened by national security and tested for communicable diseases.
They would be issued with a special barcode, which only immigration officials - not police or RELA - can scan with mobile phones.
Our number of boat arrivals is about a third of that, way down, so it is a very significant reduction."
Seven boats carrying more than 300 asylum seekers have arrived since the government's announcement.
Mr Bowen maintained the recent arrivals would be processed in "a third country".
He said Australia and Malaysia were still working through "one or two operational issues" to finalise the deal.
The government was still talking with Papua New Guinea about the possibility of reopening the Manus Island detention centre despite that country's political upheaval.
Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare this week stepped down to battle illness.
"They have had a change of prime minister, a considerable Cabinet reshuffle; they have had some issues to work through and that is perfectly appropriate," Mr Bowen said.
"We continue to talk to PNG of course but it is also appropriate that we give them time to sort through their domestic political situation.
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