Rights Advocates Worried About Treatment of Refugees Under Resettlement Plan

Cambodia May Take In Refugees Seeking Asylum in Australia

Rights Advocates Worried About Treatment of Refugees Under Resettlement Plan

Wall Street Journal | April 30, 2014

 

Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong meets with Haoliang Xu, right, assistant to the U.N. secretary-general and Flavia Pansieri, left, U.N. deputy high commissioner for human rights in Phnom Penh. Zuma Press

 

Cambodia has agreed in principle to take in asylum seekers intercepted while trying to enter Australia, in a plan backed by the United Nations but opposed by rights advocates concerned about possible ill-treatment of refugees. 

The plan—which still needs final approval from Phnom Penh—would involve resettling asylum seekers currently held by Australian authorities in the South Pacific island nation of Nauru. It was first proposed by Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop during a February visit to Cambodia, as part of a hard-line policy of turning back asylum seekers who arrive by boat.

Cambodia's decision came after a Tuesday meeting between Foreign Minister Hor Namhong and U.N. Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Flavia Pansieri, according to a Cambodian foreign ministry official.

"The government has created a special commission to study the Australian proposal," Ouch Borith, secretary of state at Cambodia's foreign ministry, told reporters. "We've agreed in principle, but the proposal hasn't been given the OK."

Mr. Borith also denied that Cambodia had agreed to the proposal in exchange for aid. The impoverished Southeast Asian nation has received about US$244 million in aid from Australia over the past three years. 

If Cambodia were to proceed with the resettlement plan, "we will do it in accordance with international standards and without coercion [from other countries]," Mr. Borith said.

A spokeswoman for Australian Immigration Minister Scott Morrison declined to confirm whether Cambodia has agreed to the resettlement plan.

"The government is continuing its discussions on these issues and welcomes the receptive and positive response from Cambodia that has been provided to date," she said.

Ms. Pansieri, the U.N. official, declined to comment on the details of the proposal, but said "we stand ready to provide support to ensure that [international human-rights] standards are met."

Asylum seekers have been a political flash point in Australia for more than a decade, helping swing the outcome of several closely fought elections as the major parties worked to appear better at defending the country's vast sea borders. Prime Minister Tony Abbott won power last September in part on a promise to stop refugee boat arrivals.

Australia regularly intercepts asylum seekers who attempt to reach the country by boat, and houses them in offshore detention centers in Papua New Guinea and Nauru. Its tough border-control policies have been criticized by the U.N. refugee agency, which says inhumane conditions at such detention centers breach Canberra's humanitarian obligations.

In February, an asylum seeker was killed and 77 others were injured in clashes linked to an escape attempt from a detention center on Papua New Guinea's Manus Island. This center, mothballed in 2004, was reopened last year after Australia agreed to invest 500 million Australian dollars (US$464 million) to shore up Papua New Guinea's finances and boost its infrastructure.

At the time, Mr. Morrison, the immigration minister, said the unrest wouldn't prompt a rethinking of Australia's border policies.

The potential resettlement of asylum seekers to Cambodia has also worried activists, who say the Southeast Asian nation has a poor track record in protecting human rights—criticisms that Cambodian officials have repeatedly rejected.

"Cambodia has committed some of the most blatant breaches of the [U.N. Refugee Convention]," such as by repatriating asylum seekers to countries where they could face persecution, said Paul Power, chief executive of the Refugee Council of Australia.