FOREIGN AID POVERTY & CORRUPTION

Where will our Foreign AID go

The Abbott governments Foreign Aid policy has changed to ‘Quid Pro Quo’. In other  words we must be seen to be getting something  in return Foreign Trade not so much Aid. Half of Cambodia lives in poverty and we are trying to send 1000 refugees there for resettlement. We are one of Cambodia’s largest aid benefactors. With a dramatic cut back elsewhere Cambodia’s will increase. However it has more than doubled for “Cross Regional Programs” which starts to smell of bribe. What aid programs will be scarified in order to accommodate the trafficked asylum seekers. Will the costs be regarded as our Aid obligation?

The Hun Sen government in Cambodia is notoriously corrupt. Hun Sen and his Cambodia People’s Party have also regularly been accused of rigging elections and paying scant attention to human rights. Freedom House assessed Cambodia to be “not free”. A recent report by the US State Department drew attention to three key human rights issues:

a politicised and ineffective judiciary, constraints on freedom of press and assembly, and abuse of prison detainees.

Like Sri Lanka & PNG we can expect Australia not to criticize the Hun Sen government for corruption and human rights abuses in return for agreeing to an Australian-funded resettlement program.

Incidentally, Papua New Guinea ranks only 16 places above Cambodia on Transparency International’s index. The US State Department has expressed serious concerns about PNG’s human rights record, too, listing “severe police abuse of detainees and police and military abuse of citizens; violence and discrimination against women; and vigilante killings and abuses” in a report published last year.

Morrison’s response:

“Resettlement is freedom from persecution, it’s not a ticket to a first-class economy.”

” They will have freedom of movement … can work, [and] their children can go to school.”

Vietnamese Cambodians are:

…deprived of citizenship, trapped in poverty, lack access to education, live under deplorable conditions, and are shut out from economic, social, and political life.

However not withstanding the government’s willingness to underwrite Cambodia’s resettlement program, it is not clear whether Cambodia will have the resources to deal adequately with the challenges posed by refugees who have no family to support them and who cannot draw on the experiences and assistance of members of the same ethnic community who have been resettled before them. What  life is awaiting Iranian, Afghan and Tamil refugees currently in limbo in Nauru?

According to the Center for International Refugee Law.

“it’s a flawed deal” the refugees should be resettled here “It would be far cheaper for Australia. It would be a better outcome for human rights it would be more legally compliant, and it would be better for these refugees who have been extremely traumatised by their incarceration.”

Cambodia like PNG and Nauru have no infrastructure for resettlement or any services to assist. It of course will Australian Foreign Aid or the LNP self help program with a little on the side for those with their hands out. However Morrison hasn’t mentioned what Cambodia is getting because it’s not his department it’s Bishops.Cambodia is ranked 160 of177 countries for transparancy and human rights abuse. Can the Australian government be charged as was the Wheat Board & Securancy International for paying bribes to secure a contract? Because that’s what will be required.

The Cambodian opposition has said

“Cambodia is not a rich country and should not fall under Australian policies of dumping refugees”

Tom Vargas UNHCR said

“The deal is not in the spirit of resettlement that Cambodia itself was recovering from a civil war that killed millions of it’s people”

When Scott Morrison is in charge of a Department that’s noted for people smuggling, fraud and crime of which Morrison like Sgt Schulz  of Hogan’s Heroes says”he knows nothing”, why are we expected to believe the man is conducting a non- transparent deal with Cambodia. Isn’t he complicit in foreign corruption. Directors of corporations have been charged for these sorts of offenses.

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