Amnesty International urges Cambodian govt to scrap asylum seeker plan

Amnesty International urges Cambodian govt to scrap asylum seeker plan

The Cambodia Daily reported that Amnesty International on Friday lambasted a pending deal that would see people seeking asylum in Australia to be resettled in Cambodia.

Cambodia has already agreed in principle with Australia to take in asylum seekers who are currently being detained on the South Pacific island of Nauru, although a final deal has not been signed.

“Australia should be ending its offshore processing and detention of asylum seekers, not looking to outsource its refugee responsibilities to another, much poorer country,” said Richard Bennett, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific Director, in a statement.

“Cambodia should be aware of the serious risks around this arrangement and must consider whether it really is ready to participate. The country has only limited capacity to process asylum seeker claims and is still struggling to respect and protect the rights of its own citizens.”

“The proposed agreement with Australia also comes at a time when the human rights situation in Cambodia has deteriorated to the point of crisis, a situation that Australia itself has criticized,” Amnesty said in relation to the violent suppression of opposition and garment protests.

“Aside from being unlawful, it is perverse and shameful for Australia to be sending asylum seekers to a country where respect for their human rights cannot be guaranteed and which Australia itself has recently condemned for failing to respect human rights,” Mr. Bennett added.

Cambodia’s Foreign Ministry could not be reached for comment.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/amnesty-international-urges-cambodian-govt-scrap-asylum-seeker-plan/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=amnesty-international-urges-cambodian-govt-scrap-asylum-seeker-plan

-- Thai PBS 2014-05-03