Australia to give $12m in refugee funding

[geovalin]

Daniel Pye and Cheang Sokha

Australia will spend at least US$43.3 million to resettle a small number of refugees in Cambodia under an agreement signed in Phnom Penh last year, an official has said.

A Senate committee in Canberra was told yesterday that Australia would stump up A$15.5 million ($12 million) on top of an original pledge of A$40 million ($31 million) in aid to Cambodia.

The “[A]$15.5 million is for services to support the settlement of refugees in Cambodia, including health, education and training services. It is in addition to the [A]$40 million previously announced,” a spokesman for Australia’s Immigration Department said yesterday.

The money will go directly towards paying for services for the refugees, while the additional aid money will be transferred in instalments as and when refugees arrive over the coming years.

Only four refugees formerly detained on the Pacific island of Nauru, where Australia contracts a private security firm to run a detention centre, have so far accepted resettlement under the scheme.

The four – three Iranians and an ethnic Rohingya from Myanmar – have been housed at an Australian immigration facility near Darwin airport after being secretly flown to the northern Australian city earlier this month.

A spokesman for the Australian Taxpayers Alliance declined to comment on the use of public funds for resettlement as he had not previously been made aware of the quoted figure given yesterday to the Senate committee.

In its recently announced annual budget, Australia revealed it would cut aid to many of Cambodia’s neighbours, while leaving the Kingdom’s budget largely intact.

Australian immigration officials did not respond yesterday to a question about the expected transfer date for the four refugees to Cambodia.

Khieu Sopheak, spokesman for the Interior Ministry, and Kerm Sarin, director of the ministry’s Refugee Department, said they were unaware of any imminent plans to move the group.

An Iranian refugee still on Nauru said recent assaults on the community, particularly a brutal sexual assault on a young woman last week, were adding to their distress, as many remained unwilling to move to Cambodia, a country they viewed as corrupt and impoverished.

“As a teenage girl, I don’t want anything but my freedom. I want to walk in the street and see shopping, buildings, crowds. I want to see my sister and my niece. This is too much that I want? I’m tired of pretending that I’m ok. I have too much pain in my heart and I can’t handle it anymore,” she said.

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/australia-give-12m-refugee-funding

[geovalin]

Operation refugee

Thu, 28 May 2015

Daniel Pye and Cheang Sokha

The senior Australian military official in charge of coordinating the refugee resettlement deal with Cambodia visited Phnom Penh late last week to finalise arrangements for the transfer of four refugees to the Kingdom, he told a Senate committee this week.

Major General Andrew Bottrell, commander of the Joint Agency Task Force for Operation Sovereign Borders and the “tactical and operational liaison with the government of Cambodia”, told Australia’s legal and constitutional affairs committee on Monday that a final date for their arrival had not yet been set.

“I cannot give you a final date, because we have not finalised that with the government of Cambodia,” he said, according to an official record of the proceedings.

“I returned from Cambodia at the end of last week. We continue to work very closely with the government of Cambodia to finalise the arrangements for the final movement of those four.”

Four refugees – an ethnic Rohingya from Myanmar and three Iranians – were secretly flown from the Pacific island of Nauru to Darwin in Australia’s Northern Territory in early May and have been housed in an immigration facility near the airport ever since, awaiting approval for a flight to Cambodia.

Since the resettlement scheme, signed in September, was first raised in a closed-door meeting between Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and Prime Minister Hun Sen in February last year, it has been shrouded in secrecy. “Consistent with the established protocols for information relating to international engagements, the detail of official bilateral dialogue or communication between operational agencies relating to Operation Sovereign Borders will not be disclosed,” Bottrell said.

Australia agreed to provide an additional A$40 million (about US$31 million) in aid to Cambodia as part of the arrangement, and earlier this week announced it would spend an estimated A$15.5 million more to fund resettlement services.

Bottrell told the committee that the country’s militarised offshore refugee policy had allowed him to focus various agencies’ resources on the deal.

Mike Pezzulo, secretary of Australia’s Immigration and Border Affairs Department, told the same committee on Tuesday that the secrecy was because Canberra does “not want [the refugees] to become zoo exhibits”.

“They are being managed sensitively and empathetically. People have been with them caring for them and engaging with them whilst they have been in transit, and we look forward to helping them to get on their way and settle in Cambodia in the not too distant future.”

“It is just a matter of working through some final logistical details,” he added.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM), which is providing initial accommodation for the refugees and some services, yesterday suggested that media access to the refugees would not be forthcoming.

“Media exposure could potentially jeopardise protection needs of refugees and carries high level of risk to their families at home,” an IOM spokesman said. “While IOM can speak in general terms about what services will be available to refugees, IOM will not disclose any specific details about a refugee’s particular assistance.”

The group said last week that it had “villa-style” accommodation in Phnom Penh readied for the arrival of the four.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong said Major General Bottrell would have met directly with senior Interior Ministry officials during his visit, as the Foreign Ministry had not been informed. Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak could not be reached.

Pezzulo said Australia hoped that Cambodia would take, on a voluntary basis, “as many [refugees] as possible – as many as the Cambodians are willing to take, as many who seek to settle there and as many as can be processed accordingly”.

David Manne, executive director of the Australia-based Refugee and Immigration Legal Centre, said secrecy had plagued the agreement since day one.

“This secrecy is also deeply troubling given that under this cynical, short-term political fix, Australia is aiding, abetting and funding the diversion of refugees in its care to a country – Cambodia – which is a deeply impoverished country engulfed in a human rights crisis … a completely untenable place to resettle refugees.”

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/operation-refugee

[geovalin]

Well documented BBC point of view

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-32872835

Welcome to Cambodia: What Australia isn't telling refugees

By Kevin Doyle

[geovalin]

Did Cambodia Just Scam Australia?

http://thediplomat.com/2015/05/did-cambodia-just-scam-australia/

by Anya Palm

[cgphuket]

Let me guess, 99% of the funds will go to support the staff of the "so called" NGO, and 1% will trickle to the Cambodian people.