Theary Seng, a Phnom Penh-based lawyer, expressed similar sentiments. When it comes to statistics for human development, corruption, education, social welfare and security, "Cambodia ranks at the very bottom tier," she said.
"These refugees," she said, "will be dumped into a sea of human-rights abuses."
For asylum seekers, a novel (and odd) solution: Cambodia
/ Yahoo News | 24 April 2015
BANGKOK (AP) — Still haunted by the Vietnam War next door and
the 1970s genocide that followed, Cambodia is not exactly the place
that the world's refugees dream of reaching.
Plagued by poverty, corruption and human rights
abuses, it has been run by a strongman prime minister who has held power
for 30 years. It's a nation where medical care outside main cities is
nonexistent, where decent jobs are so scarce that more than 800,000 of
its own people have left to find work abroad.
Yet when it comes to
700 asylum seekers detained on the remote Pacific Island nation of
Nauru, Australia is hard-selling Cambodia as something unexpected: their
new promised land of opportunity.
In a video message aired this
week to asylum seekers on Nauru, Australian Immigration Minister Peter
Dutton — whose nation has said it will never take the migrants — touted
Cambodia as "a fast-paced and vibrant country with a stable economy and
varied employment opportunities ... a diverse nation with a blend of
many nationalities, cultures and religions."
"An opportunity for a new life is now before you," Dutton said. "While it's not Australia, Cambodia offers you safety, security and opportunity."
Two recent
shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea that killed as many as 1,300 people
have thrown a new spotlight on the global movement of asylum seekers and
migrants seeking a better life, and the struggle by other, often
wealthier nations to push them back.
The 700 asylum seekers on Nauru, many from as far away as Iran,
Sri Lanka and Myanmar, have been stuck there since 2013. Australia
funds a detention center there similar to another on Papua New Guinea
that temporarily houses intercepted migrants who attempted dangerous
journeys across the open sea.
In a bid to settle their fates,
Australia offered Cambodia US$31 million to take the refugees in deal
agreed last year. Critics say the country is extraordinarily
ill-equipped to host refugees, and they accuse Australia of exploiting
poorer nations in a bid to rid itself of unwanted migrants.
"Australia
is basically paying blood money to a much poorer, less developed state
with a shoddy record of refugee protection to take people that Canberra
doesn't want," said Phil Robertson, deputy director for Asia at Human
Rights Watch.
"When they get there, the refugees will find huge
hurdles to integrate, jobs that are few and far between, and a resentful
local population wondering why this group should get a time-limited
year of Australian assistance when ordinary Cambodians do not,"
Robertson said.
Hundreds of thousands of people fled Cambodia in
the 1970s, when the country was bombed by American forces during the
Vietnam War, then ruled by the fanatical Khmer Rouge, an ultra-communist
movement that oversaw the death of about 2 million people before being
ousted by Vietnamese forces.
Australia says it is a generous supporter of refugees and is
working hard to find durable solutions to the crisis. In a letter to his
country's Parliament last year, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen
defended his government's decision to take in those on Nauru, calling it
a "humanitarian" gesture. He said Cambodia is already home to refugees —
just 85 to be exact — from countries including Vietnam, Thailand,
Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Palestine, Iraq, Sudan, Congo and Somalia.
Son
Chhay, a Cambodian lawmaker, said Hun Sen's humanitarian claim was
disingenuous. He cited the fact that Cambodia has deported Vietnamese
and Chinese minorities over the last decade, and questioned why it would
now take in "unwanted refugees from Australia" instead.
In March,
Cambodian police hunted down 42 Montagnard asylum seekers from Vietnam
and forced them home, Robertson said. The Montagnard are an ethnic
minority; many of them sided with the U.S. during the Vietnam War and
attend Protestant churches not recognized by the government.
So
far, Cambodia says only one person on Nauru has taken up the
resettlement offer — an ethnic Rohingya Muslim from Myanmar, two
countries away.
Kem Sarin, who heads the refugee office at
Cambodia's Interior Ministry, said the case was under review and there
is no word on when the man might arrive in Phnom Penh.
Dutton told Sky News television on Tuesday that "ringleaders"
among the Nauru refugees "have been telling their fellow travelers there
not to accept the deal and they are being spurred on by refugee
advocates in Australia." Such actions, he says, are "prolonging the
difficulties for these people" because it is futile for them to hold
onto hope of ever reaching Australia.
An Australian fact sheet
endorsing Cambodia was distributed on Nauru this month. It promised free
health insurance and cash, and described Cambodia as a place where
people "enjoy all the freedoms of a democratic society, including
freedom of religion and freedom of speech."
The
handout fails to mention that Cambodia's government has a history of
brutally cracking down on dissent, most recently against opponents who
accused the ruling party of rigging 2013 elections.
It
also appears at odds with Australia's own travel advisory for Cambodia,
which warns of the potential for violent clashes between security
forces and demonstrators, says robberies occur frequently and cautions
that medical care "may be limited or non-existent" in some places while
infectious diseases like dengue fever and typhoid are common.
"The
reality is that refugees under Australia's care who are sent to
Cambodia are likely in the long term to lead lives of danger,
destitution and despair on the margins," said David Manne, a human
rights lawyer who is executive director of Australia's Refugee and
Immigration Legal Center. Cambodia, he said, "can barely look after the
needs and safety of its own population, let alone those of refugees."
Theary
Seng, a Phnom Penh-based lawyer, expressed similar sentiments. When it
comes to statistics for human development, corruption, education, social
welfare and security, "Cambodia ranks at the very bottom tier," she
said.
"These refugees," she said, "will be dumped into a sea of human-rights abuses."
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