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Friday, September 26, 2014

Australia Poised to Resettle Asylum Seekers in Cambodia

Australia Poised to Resettle Asylum Seekers in Cambodia

Plan to Send Refugees to Impoverished Southeast Asian Nation Faces Criticism From Rights Groups

Australian Immigration Minister Scott Morrison, who is set to visit Cambodia to sign the asylum-seeker pact. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Wall Street Journal | 24 September 2014
 
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia—Cambodia's government Wednesday said it plans to sign an agreement with Australia on Friday after months of negotiations to resettle around 1,000 asylum seekers currently detained at an Australian immigration facility in the tiny South Pacific nation of Nauru.
The proposed memorandum of understanding, which Cambodian authorities said would be signed during a planned visit to Phnom Penh by Australian Immigration Minister Scott Morrison, has drawn substantial criticism in both countries. 

Representatives from Mr. Morrison's office said he would be in Cambodia on Friday and Saturday, without offering further details.

The Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee has registered what it described as its "serious concerns" over the resettlement plan. The 21-member umbrella group of human-rights organizations said in a statement last month that it was especially concerned over what it said was the lack of public scrutiny over discussions to move the asylum seekers to Cambodia.

Human-rights campaigners in Australia, meanwhile, have warned that any agreement would effectively dump asylum seekers in an impoverished nation with a questionable record on refugee protection.

Cambodia's government offered few clues as to what the relocation agreement would comprise. It simply said Mr. Morrison would sign a memorandum of understanding with Cambodia on the settlement of refugees in the Southeast Asian nation. 

Australia's government has robustly defended its border laws, which require asylum seekers arriving on boats to be detained for long periods in small Pacific nations such as Nauru.

Mr. Morrison told an inquiry held by the Australian Human Rights Commission last month that the policy had been successful in deterring asylum seekers from making the dangerous sea voyage to Australia, despite criticism from the United Nations' refugee agency. He said only one boat had arrived by August, down from 220 in the same eight-month period the year before.

At times, Australian forces have towed boats back out into international waters.

Border protection was among the key issues in the election campaign that brought Prime Minister Tony Abbott's center-right government to power last year.

Write to James Hookway at james.hookway@wsj.com



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