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Cambodia and Australia sign immigrant deal amid international charities' disgust

UN High Commissioner for Refugees slams 'worrying departure' from standard global practice on refugees

AUSTRALIA signed its controversial immigrant-offloading deal with Cambodia yesterday despite mounting international disgust.

The memorandum of understanding will see refugees held at an Australian detention camp on the Pacific island of Nauru resettled in Cambodia at Australia’s expense.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said the deal was a “worrying departure” from international norms.

“International responsibility-sharing is the basis on which the global refugee system works,” he said.

“I hope the Australian government will reconsider.”

Canberra has pushed through draconian measures to prevent refugees from reaching Australian territory, with the Liberal Party government declaring that no-one who arrives by boat would ever be resettled in the country.

Critics say Cambodia’s human rights record could put resettled migrants at risk, adding that the country was too poor to handle a major influx of refugees.

Amnesty International said it was “a new low in Australia’s deplorable and inhuman treatment of asylum-seekers.”

And it pointed to forced evictions, land-grabs and the violent suppression of striking workers as evidence that Cambodia could not be trusted with the refugees’ welfare.

In Australia a coalition of charities including Childrens Rights International, Save the Children and Unicef Australia condemned the move.

“When you choose to place refugee children in the care of a country already dependent on the international donor community for supporting its own children, you make a clear choice to put refugee children and their families at serious risk,” said group spokesman and former chief justice Alastair Nicholson.

Cambodian Centre for Human Rights chairman Ou Virak said that a country which could not provide access to decent healthcare or education for its own citizens would not “fix these things for the refugees.

“I think they will be left in limbo for years.”

Australia had an obligation under international law to protect refugees, but “sending them Cambodia’s way is the worst and most irresponsible thing Canberra could have done.”

Australian Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said his government would pay Cambodia AU$40 million (£21.7m) over four years in addition to the resettlement costs.

As he and Cambodian Interior Minister Sar Kheng celebrated the agreement with a champagne toast in Pnomh Penh, crowds demonstrated against the deal outside Australia’s embassy there.

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