First 4 Refugees Rejected by Australia Arrive in Cambodia

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First 4 Refugees Rejected by Australia Arrive in Cambodia

Four asylum seekers rejected by Australia have arrived in Cambodia, becoming the first to leave the Pacific island nation of Nauru under a deal that allows refugees rejected by Australia to be resettled in the Southeast Asian country.

Cambodia agreed to accept them under a 40 million Australian dollar ($32 million) four-year agreement it made with Australia last year to resettle asylum seekers held in an Australia-run detention center on Nauru.

Airport and police officials confirmed the Thursday arrival of the group, identified as two Iranian men, an Iranian woman and a Rohingya man from Myanmar.

Australian officials have faced strong criticism at home for the steep cost to taxpayers of the deal that has attracted only four takers from the hundreds of refugees on Nauru

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/refugees-rejected-australia-arrive-cambodia-31515524

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Refugees Arrive in Kingdom; Human Rights Group Quickly Condemns OZ Resettlement Deal

News by Khmer Times/Donald Lee

PHNOM PENH (Khmer Times) – Four asylum seekers from the Nauru island detention camp arrived in the Kingdom and were quickly whisked out of Phnom Penh International Airport on Thursday morning. They were driven away in curtained vans – to a destination unknown.

It is reported that the four asylum seekers are three Iranians and an ethnic Rohingya from Myanmar – two males and two females. They are volunteers who agreed to be resettled in Cambodia as part of the $40 million dollar agreement deal reached by the Cambodia and Austrailia government.

Government officials at the airport refused to comment on the specific relocation deal and where the asylum seekers would be temporarily sheltered.

Read more: http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/11950/refugees-arrive-in-kingdom--human-rights-group-quickly-condemns-oz-resettlement-deal/

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First refugees from Australian detention camp arrive in Cambodia

By Prak Chan Thul

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - The first asylum seekers from a remote South Pacific detention center arrived in Cambodia on Thursday under a controversial Australian resettlement scheme that critics say amounts to dumping refugees and shirking international obligations.

The three Iranians and one Rohingya, a mostly stateless Muslim minority residing in Myanmar, are the only ones among 677 detainees on Nauru island to so far take up a resettlement offer struck between the two countries last September.

Phnom Penh will receive A$40 million ($40 million) in additional aid under the resettlement deal, which has been condemned by rights groups and opposition lawmakers.

Australia failed to establish a similar resettlement deal with Malaysia, when Australia's High Court ruled it unconstitutional.

Australia has vowed to stop asylum seekers sailing from Indonesia reaching its shores. It intercepts boats at sea and ships asylum seekers to camps in impoverished Papua New Guinea and Nauru, where they are often held for long periods.

Airport officials confirmed a Malaysia Airlines plane carrying the four refugees had landed in the capital Phnom Penh mid-morning.

"We welcome them and wish them luck in our country, we are a country of no discrimination and we include these newcomers, to build the country together," said Cambodia's government spokesman Phay Siphan.

Rights groups have condemned Australia for trying to resettle refugees to poorer nations like Cambodia, a country frequently in the spotlight for human rights abuses and with an economy less than one percent of the size of Australia's.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch said Cambodia was an inappropriate partner for resettlement, having shown poor form in sending back asylum seekers from neighboring Vietnam.

"These four refugees are essentially human guinea pigs in an Australian experiment that ignores that the fact that Cambodia has not integrated other refugees," its deputy Asia director, Phil Robertson said in a statement.

"It's been nine months since the Australia-Cambodia deal was signed, and the situation for refugees and asylum seekers living in Cambodia has not improved at all."

Australia has struggled to convince refugees to voluntarily resettle in Cambodia, despite offering cash incentives, and handing out brochures touting its attractiveness, like a secure environment and cheap beer and cigarettes.

Cambodian officials have had no luck either. A leaked letter from Interior Minister Sar Kheng saying 11 presentations were held in Nauru and on most days, no one showed up.

(Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Michael Perry)

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/plane-four-refugees-australian-detention-lands-cambodia-officials-041109103.html

[timmyp]

I'm not optimitic on how this is going to turn out. Perhaps they will fully embrace Cambodian culture, learn Cambodian, and the locals will be happy to integrate them into their society? Or perhaps they will feel isolated, economically desperate, and that migrating elsewhere is their only choice.

[klauskunkel]

only four refugees elected to go to transparent, lawful and ethical Cambodia? Maybe the Aussies should have made the deal with Monaco instead, I'm sure many more would have gone there in a heartbeat...probably would have cost more than 40 Mio, though!

[tracker1]

Funny the other day it was $55.5 million thats a win for Cambodia for only 4 refugees who thinks Cambodia will look after them I for 1 don't knowing how they treat their own people.

[Transporter]

Send them back where they came from. I had to pay a fortune to get my Thai wife a British passport but these cheeky system abusers just think they can move to where ever they like for free. It stinks. Australia is the only country getting it right. DONT LET THEM IN. They could be IS terrorists for all anyone knows. Most of them are leaving from North Africa where there are loads of IS terrorists.

[maoro2013]

If they are genuine refugees they likely would have able to enter Australia.

Most likely these are attempted illegal immigrants.

[kinmaew]

Everyone condemns western countries. Does Thailand take anyone in with all the billionaires who don't pay any tax in that country? Seems the Thai elite are smothered in gold but its always "Farang" responsibility to help the rest of the world.

[simple1]

If they are genuine refugees they likely would have able to enter Australia.

Most likely these are attempted illegal immigrants.

Wrong. Only those assessed as genuine refugees are offered resettlement in Cambodia. Under the Pacific Solution, as they were boat people, Australia will never permitted entry to its territory.

Note three are Iranian and one Myanmar Rohingya, both countries refuse to accept returnees.

Edited June 4, 2015 by simple1

[gchurch259]

Australia, just like any other country has a right to reject what they consider to be a threat to national security and with all the ISIS and radical Muslim Groups refugee or not. There is too much of this "Lets move over there and create stuff and do it while living off welfare !!

Most of these people should stay home and make something of their country !!

[GoodThaiGirl]

wow they are getting fussy arent they...me thinks economic migrants..not poorly abused refugees..note.....both pay money to move to better climes..eu is fave where the rest of the family will soon come to abuse the system..

Edited June 4, 2015 by GoodThaiGirl

[a99az]

Send them back where they came from. I had to pay a fortune to get my Thai wife a British passport but these cheeky system abusers just think they can move to where ever they like for free. It stinks. Australia is the only country getting it right. DONT LET THEM IN. They could be IS terrorists for all anyone knows. Most of them are leaving from North Africa where there are loads of IS terrorists.

Cost me nothing to bring my Thai wife and kids to the UK and all done while on a holiday in Spain. Great fun.

[Travelman868]

I'm not optimitic on how this is going to turn out. Perhaps they will fully embrace Cambodian culture, learn Cambodian, and the locals will be happy to integrate them into their society? Or perhaps they will feel isolated, economically desperate, and that migrating elsewhere is their only choice.

Muslims do not itigrate. Why are most of the refugees and migrants in the world of this "faith" The 800,000 Rokingya Muslims have been causing problems in Burma since 1972. Australia is a large country with a small population, they do not want these people causing more trouble there.

[simple1]

wow they are getting fussy arent they...me thinks economic migrants..not poorly abused refugees..note.....both pay money to move to better climes..eu is fave where the rest of the family will soon come to abuse the system..

To repeat, those agreeing to be resettled in Cambodia have been assessed as genuine refugees by Australian Immigration and Border Control.

[Transporter]

Anyone who thinks there is such a thing as a genuine migrant who justs want to resettle that came from an islamic area must be completely ignorant. They are freeloaders or worse still ISIS members in disguise. They are illegal immigrants and should be rejected and sent back to the country they departed from the same way my Thai wife would have been if I hadn't paid to do everything by the book.

There are some soft headed, lefty loons on here who must favour having their head removed by a machete wealding brainwashed religious nutter.