Phnom Penh media is reporting officials will travel to Australia and Nauru as soon as this week to present options to refugees
Cambodian government officials will travel to Nauru as early as this week to give refugees there a “realistic” assessment of life in that country, the Phnom Penh Post has reported.
The unconfirmed reports suggest Cambodian officials will travel to Australia this week, before flying on to the tiny Pacific island to meet refugees to discuss their option to be resettled in south-east Asia.
Refugees on Nauru have been told they will never go to Australia. They will be allowed to resettle on Nauru on a five year visa, or can choose to be resettled in Cambodia.
Cambodian Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak said the refugees would be given an honest assessment of the country.
“This is not a trip to advertise [and] to attract tourists to Cambodia, this trip is to tell them about Cambodia,” he told the Post. “About life, about culture, about the history of Cambodia and where we came from. For example, the three years, eight months and 20 days [of the Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s], how we suffered. The reality of Cambodia, not the advertising.
“Cambodia is like a developing country, not a developed country like where [they] want to stay. They want to go to Australia.”
Initially the deal was supposed to transfer up to 1,000 refugees from Nauru to Cambodia. But latest reports suggest the deal could be much smaller, beginning with only four or five refugees.
The United Nations, aid groups, and international law experts have questioned the legality of the Cambodia-Australia deal, as well as the practicalities of sending refugees to one of Asia’s poorest, most corrupt, countries.
Sources have told Guardian Australia Cambodian officials could spend up to two weeks negotiating with Australian government representatives and on Nauru speaking with refugees.
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