Fourth Refugee From Nauru Heads Home; One Left

One of the last two remaining refugees who arrived from camps on the South Pacific island of Nauru under Cambodia’s controversial resettlement deal with Australia has left the country, an official confirmed on Sunday.

“The Iranian refugee left Cambodia for his native country in April because he volunteered to return home,” said Kerm Sarin, head of administration at the Interior Ministry’s immigration department.

“We don’t know why he left; he just told us that he was volunteering to return home.”

The Iranian’s departure leaves only one young Rohingya man from Burma remaining from the five refugees who have taken up the resettlement offer since Cambodia and Australia, which runs the Nauru camps, sealed the deal in late 2014.

Cambodia agreed to take in an unspecified number of the refugees in return for an additional $29 million in aid.

The three who had previously returned home included an Iranian couple and another man from Burma.

Although the resettlement deal has been decidedly unpopular on Nauru and has seemed at times to verge on collapse, Cambodian officials have said they are preparing another visit to Nauru next month in order to interview two new volunteers.

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