PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) – Australia and Cambodia signed an agreement Friday for asylum-seekers who are refused residency in Australia to instead be resettled in the impoverished Southeast Asian country criticized for its deteriorating human rights record.
Australian Immigration Minister Scott Morrison and Cambodian Interior Minister Sar Kheng signed the memorandum of understanding to resettle an unspecified number of refugees currently held at an Australian-run detention camp on the tiny Pacific island nation of Nauru. Most of the detainees arrived by boat from the Middle East and South Asia.
Australia has increased its efforts to deter asylum-seekers from attempting to reach Australian shores by boat, and its current government has vowed that no boat arrivals will ever be resettled in Australia.
But the efforts have concerned activists for refugees, with critics of Australia’s resettlement efforts charging that Cambodia is too impoverished to handle them and that its poor human rights record puts any resettled asylum-seekers at risk.
“This is a worrying departure from international norms,” the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres said in a statement. “International responsibility sharing is the basis on which the whole global refugee system works. I hope that the Australian government will reconsider its approach.”