Australia-Cambodia deal puts refugees at risk

Phnom Penh has a poor record on refugee protection and basic rights, says Human Rights Watch.

Photo credit: abc.net.au

A new refugee agreement between Australia and Cambodia does not meet Australias commitment to send refugees to a safe third country, and will undermine refugee protection in the region, Human Rights Watch has said.

A Cambodian government press release states that the Australian immigration minister, Scott Morrison, will sign a Memorandum of Understanding on the settlement of refugees in Cambodia with the Cambodian interior minister, Sar Kheng, in Phnom Penh on 26 September 2014.

Australia and Cambodia have not released the terms of the agreement. However, Morrison has previously said that up to 1,000 asylum seekers sent by Australia to Nauru, where they have been recognised as refugees, may be transferred to Cambodia on a voluntary basis. Although Cambodia is a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention, it has failed to protect refugees and asylum seekers, returning them to countries where they faced persecution.

Australias deal with Cambodia will send people to a country that has a terrible record for protecting refugees and is mired in serious human rights abuses, said Elaine Pearson, Australia director at Human Rights Watch. Australia should have examined these refugee claims itself instead of diverting asylum seekers to Nauru, but at least it should take those found to be refugees instead of shipping them off to Cambodia. Despite Canberras claims, the reality is Cambodia is both unsafe and ill-equipped to handle large numbers of refugees who will be given one-way tickets to Phnom Penh.

Since September 2012, Australia has been sending asylum seekers who arrive by boat to Nauru and Papua New Guinea to be screened there for refugee status. Under the terms of an agreement with Nauru, Australia is committed to helping settle refugees to a third safe country.

Australia has refused to accept returning anyone found to be a refugee to Australia on the grounds that it is pursuing a regional burden-sharing solution. As of 31 August 2014, 1,233 asylum seekers are detained in Nauru. As of 18 September 2014, the Nauru government has carried out 250 status determinations, 206 of whom have been recognised as refugees.

Australia will be failing to meet the terms of its agreement because Cambodia is not a safe third country, Human Rights Watch said.

The Australian government has referred to the transfer to Cambodia as resettlement. However, a spokesman for the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, has described resettlement in Cambodia as not being a durable solution. Its not in the spirit of resettlement, the spokesman said.

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Australia-Cambodia deal puts refugees at risk