Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, left, says his country will accept refugees from Australia despite his country not being "abundant with resources like a number of developed countries". Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, left, says his country will accept refugees from Australia despite his country not being "abundant with resources like a number of developed countries". Photo: AFP

Cambodia’s strongman Prime Minister Hun Sen has confirmed his impoverished country will accept refugees from Australia in a controversial agreement condemned by human rights and refugee advocates.

In his first public comments on the agreement, Mr Hun Sen said Cambodia will be “heart-felt and generous towards the refugees who need rights to asylum.”

He said the refugees who re-settle in Cambodia “will have opportunities for education and earning of livelihoods like other Cambodian citizens without discrimination.”  [Oh, now there's the assurance!  I feel at peace now.]

The Cambodian agreement to resettle refugees from Australia is part of the hard-line policies on asylum seekers being implemented by Minister for Immigration and Boarder Protection Scott Morrison. The Cambodian agreement to resettle refugees from Australia is part of the hard-line policies on asylum seekers being implemented by Minister for Immigration and Boarder Protection Scott Morrison. Photo: Getty Images

“Up until today, Cambodia has decided to accept refugees who really need resettlement in Cambodia,” Mr Hun Sen posted on Facebook.

"Cambodia will sign a memorandum of understanding with Australia in order to help the refugees, who are already interviewed, in the near future,” he wrote.
Mr Hun Sen acknowledged the country he has ruled with an iron first for more than three decades is one of the world’s poorest nations.
“Cambodia helps legal refugees even though Cambodia is not abundant with resources like a number of developed countries,” he wrote.
While details of the agreement have not been made public, Cambodia has insisted that refugees not be sent against their will, raising doubts about the effectiveness of the agreement.
Refugee advocates predict many refugees slated for Cambodia on the tiny Pacific island of Nauru will refuse to resettle in Cambodia, opting to hold out in the hope there is a policy change and they will eventually be able to get to Australia.
“People came to get protection from Australia, why would they go to Cambodia?", an asylum seeker from Nauru said earlier this month.
“It’s not a developed country. It is poor. It cannot look after refugees,” said the man who was receiving medical treatment at Sydney’s Villawood detention centre.
But Mr Hun Sen’s revelation that Australia has already interviewed some of the refugees indicates arrangements are well advanced for the transportation of up to 1000 people to his country.
His comments came after a committee in Phnom Penh set-up to consider a draft proposal from Australia completed its work.
Further details are to be worked out with Australia before the agreement is signed, maybe within days, officials in Phnom Penh say.
Cambodia also wants its officials to travel to Nauru to be involved in the refugee assessment process.
Australia is expected to give Cambodia tens of millions of dollars for accepting the refugees who will be expected to assimilate into a society where 40 per cent of people live in poverty.
They will have no rights to be transferred to another country.
The prospect of Australia sending refugees to Cambodia provoked a storm of criticism in Phnom Penh when an in-principle agreement was revealed last month, including from opposition MPs and non-government-organisations.
Virak Ou, chairman of the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights, accused Australia of irresponsibly exporting its own problem.
“We mistreated our own people and have failed to protect the human rights of our own people … we don’t have the capacity or the will,” he said.
“There’s no reason for Australia to believe that Cambodia will protect the rights of refugees, which to me is very irresponsible of Australia.”
Cambodia’s opposition leader Sam Rainsy described the deal as a “disgrace,” saying Australian money will be diverted into the pockets of Cambodia’s corrupt leaders.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has condemned the agreement, saying Cambodia is a vulnerable nation still recovering for years of civil war and is still unable to provide for its own people.
However, the UN’s Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Flavia Pansieri said the UN would be willing to provide “support to ensure that standards are met.”
The UNHCR has only a two-person office in Phnom Penh.
Of 68 asylum seekers or refugees already living in Cambodia most are desperate to be relocated to another country, welfare groups say.
They have not being given work permits so they cannot work officially and they cannot open bank accounts or send money overseas, meaning laws and regulations will have to be changed to give greater rights to any refugees arriving under the Australian agreement.
Rights groups accuse Cambodia of playing politics in the past with refugees and using them as bargaining chips in bilateral relations, pointing to the deportation of 20 ethnic Uighur asylum seekers to China in 2009.
Beijing announced a $1 billion aid package for Phnom Penh two days later.