Interior Minister Sar Kheng on Thursday said the government was still vetting the applications of four refugees on Nauru who have volunteered to resettle in Cambodia and that their arrival date had not been set, though some reports said they could arrive Friday.
Speaking with reporters at the end of a regional meeting on human trafficking, the minister said officials were looking into the applicants’ backgrounds, including their health and criminal histories.
“There are four people who have applied, but we are still reviewing them to see if they meet our conditions,” Mr. Kheng said.
The pending arrivals are part of a controversial deal Cambodia signed with Australia last year, agreeing to resettle an unlimited number of the hundreds of refugees Australia is holding on the tiny South Pacific island nation in exchange for a $31-million aid package.
The four volunteers–a Rohingya man from Burma and three Iranians—are so far the only ones to have volunteered for the program, despite offers of cash and a sustained sales pitch from Canberra.
Ian Rintoul, a spokesman for the Sydney-based Refugee Action Coalition who is in touch with people on Nauru, said the four had been told they could travel to Phnom Penh on Friday.
“There is nothing official, but the refugees on Nauru have been told, ‘Possibly Friday,’” he said. “And I have heard from Cambodia, unofficially, that there is a flight on Friday.”
Mr. Kheng, however, said an arrival date had not yet been set. And immigration chief Sok Phal, who also spoke with reporters after the trafficking event, denied that the refugees would be landing Friday.
“No, not yet,” he said. “Tomorrow, I guarantee they don’t [come].”
In a statement Thursday, Human Rights Watch urged Australia and Cambodia to abandon the plan, calling the deal little more than a bribe the former was paying the latter “to take some refugees off its hands and its conscience.”
“This isn’t a solution, but rather a business deal at the expense of some very vulnerable people,” Human Rights Watch Australia director Elaine Pearson was quoted as saying in the statement.
Rights groups and opposition lawmakers in both countries have lambasted the deal, accusing Australia of shirking its international obligations by sending the refugees to one of the poorest and most corrupt countries in the world.
Cambodia’s recent moves to deport dozens of Montagnard asylum seekers from Vietnam and find a third country for the 13 it has accepted as refugees was a bad sign for those coming from Nauru, Ms. Pearson warned in the statement.
“The Cambodian government should focus on providing effective protection and assistance to refugees already living there and ensuring asylum seekers enjoy their rights under international law,” she said.
There are currently about 60 refugees in Cambodia, but many struggle to find decent employment due to a lack of documentation.
