In a lavishly decorated conference room in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh, champagne glasses clinked incongruously as the ink dried on Australia’s latest deal to divest itself of asylum-seekers fleeing torture, war and persecution.
Under the secretive agreement, Cambodia will resettle an unspecified number of refugees currently held in an Australian-run detention centre on the Pacific island of Nauru. In exchange, as well as paying resettlement costs, Canberra will donate an extra A$40m (£21.5m) in aid over the next four years.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by Australia’s Immigration Minister, Scott Morrison, and Cambodia’s Interior Minister, Sar Kheng, cements Australia’s hardline stance on asylum-seekers who arrive by boat. But even seasoned observers of its policy over the past decade are appalled.
Still recovering from civil war, genocide and Vietnamese occupation, Cambodia is one of the world’s poorest nations. It has a shocking human rights record. It has sent asylum-seekers and refugees back to countries from which they fled. Those who escape that fate live on the margins of Cambodian society. Full story...
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Under the secretive agreement, Cambodia will resettle an unspecified number of refugees currently held in an Australian-run detention centre on the Pacific island of Nauru. In exchange, as well as paying resettlement costs, Canberra will donate an extra A$40m (£21.5m) in aid over the next four years.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by Australia’s Immigration Minister, Scott Morrison, and Cambodia’s Interior Minister, Sar Kheng, cements Australia’s hardline stance on asylum-seekers who arrive by boat. But even seasoned observers of its policy over the past decade are appalled.
Still recovering from civil war, genocide and Vietnamese occupation, Cambodia is one of the world’s poorest nations. It has a shocking human rights record. It has sent asylum-seekers and refugees back to countries from which they fled. Those who escape that fate live on the margins of Cambodian society. Full story...
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