Cambodia has agreed to resettle more refugees from Nauru under a controversial $55 million agreement with Australia.
The
impoverished nation said on Wednesday it was ready to take more than
four refugees who arrived in June after Immigration minister Peter
Dutton made an unannounced visit to capital Phnom Penh.
The breakthrough came only days after Cambodia had declared it had no immediate plans to resettle any more than the first group.
Mr
Dutton met privately with Cambodia's strongman Prime Minister Hun Sen
and the country's powerful Interior Minister Sar Kheng, who signed the
controversial agreement with Australia's then Immigration Minister Scott
Morrison last year.
Mr Dutton was expected to announce in Phnom
Penh on Thursday that more refugees had agreed to go to Cambodia, one of
the world's poorest nations.
Senior Cambodian official Sri Thamrong was quoted by the Phnom Penh Post as
saying after Mr Dutton's meetings that Cambodia is "ready to accept
more refugees…we will send our officials, a team from the Ministry of
Interior, to interview them."
"We want to have more refugees come, a group of four or five people at a time," he said.
Mr
Dutton last week downplayed reports the agreement with Cambodia had
stalled and suggested that more refugees from Nauru may be willing to
give up their hopes of reaching Australia to take a one-way flight to
Cambodia.
Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak had earlier
said the agreement with Australia remained valid "but at the moment we
want to see the first pilot refugees that have already arrived here
integrate into our society before we accept newcomers."
The agreement gives Cambodia the right to decide how many refugees it accepts.
One
of the refugees who arrived in June, a 25-year-old Rohingya Muslim from
Myanmar, has asked to return to his homeland and three Iranians have
complained about the resettlement arrangements despite living in a
luxury Australian paid villa in a Phnon Penh suburb.
Refugee
agency sources in Phnom Penh have confirmed to Fairfax Media the
refugees have been unhappy about restrictions on their movements despite
being promised training, help finding work, language tuition, health
insurance and other benefits.
Myanmar's embassy in Phnom Penh has
confirmed that the Rohingya man asked on August 7 to return to Myanmar
where Rohingya Muslims say they face persecution and denial of basic
rights.
Myanmar's military-dominated government has not yet granted approval.
Mr
Dutton flew to Phnom Penh from Europe where on Tuesday he held talks
with the refugee agency UNHCR and officials of European countries on
Europe's migrant crisis.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced on
Wednesday that Australia would accept 12,000 Syrian refugees and
contribute $44 million to the UNHCR to help shelter and clothe refugees
in camps.
Phnom Penh Post journalist Alice Cuddy said
that Mr Dutton met with half a dozen Australian officials at five-start
Raffles Le Royal Hotel on Wednesday evening, including Australian
ambassador Alison Burrows.
She said over coffees and beers they were overheard discussing what Mr Dutton would put in his statement on Thursday.
Mr Dutton said "maybe we'll say Cambodian officials will ensure to make arrangements for the next group" of refugees.
The minister refused to comment when approached, saying only that he planned "to make a very positive statement in the morning."
Australia
has spent $15 million to resettle the four refugees in Cambodia on top
of $40 million in additional development aid the Abbott government gave
Mr Hun Sen's regime in return for the agreement that has been criticised
by Cambodia's opposition parties and human rights and refugee advocacy
groups.
The government has thrown huge resources to convince
refugees on Nauru to go to Cambodia with immigration officials on the
Pacific island portraying Cambodia as a sort of developing utopia.
Mr Hun Sen has brutally quashed opposition and dissent in the country over his three decade rule.
Refugee
advocates had doubted that any more refugees on Nauru would agree to
resettle in the country where refugees already there have complained of
discrimination and inability to get access to jobs, education and health
services.
with Alice Cuddy
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