The question all Australians should ask is this: What sort of country are we? Are we selfish or are we generous? Are we willing to mistreat terrified human beings who have the courage, and the initiative, to escape to safety?
Source: Getting The Facts Straight On Refugee Resettlement | Julian Burnside
Updated
As few as four or five people could be sent from Nauru to Cambodia under a deal signed by Immigration Minister Scott Morrison in Phnom Penh today.The agreement will offer settlement of refugees on a voluntary basis, with the number of refugees accepted to be determined by Cambodia.
“In order to ensure an effective and positive implementation of the resettlement program, Cambodia and Australia have agreed to undertake an initial trial arrangement with a small group of refugees which will be followed by further resettlement in accordance with Cambodia’s capacity,” the statement said.
Australia will pay Cambodia $40 million in additional aid and also “bear the direct costs of the arrangement, including initial support to refugees, and relevant capacity building for Cambodia”.
Riot police kept watch outside the Australian embassy in Phnom Penh as Cambodians protested against the agreement.Around 100 protesters gathered outside the embassy to protest against the deal, saying the poverty-stricken country was unable to look after its own people and should not be taking in Australia’s refugees.Refugee advocates said they feared locals would be upset if refugees were given money and were perceived to be better off than others in the community.
There are also fears that the Australian funding will end up in the pockets of corrupt officials.
Mr Morrison earlier said there would be no cap placed on the number of refugees Cambodia would accept, but said it would only take those who voluntarily chose to go there.Human rights and aid groups working on the ground in Cambodia called the deal “shameful”, and said the country had a terrible record of protecting refugees.”It is shameful but it is also illegal,” said Virak Ou, president of Cambodia’s Centre for Human Rights.
“The Australian Government has an obligation to protect refugees and sending them Cambodia’s way is not how a responsible country protects refugees.”Cambodia is in no position to take refugees. We are a poor country, the health system is sub-par at most. I don’t know how the refugees will send their kids to school.”The Cambodian school system is rife with corruption … the access to education here is quite bad. So I don’t know what the Australian Government is thinking nor what they expect from
IMMIGRATION Minister Scott Morrison will sign a controversial refugee resettlement deal with Cambodia at the end of the week.
But details of the agreement won’t be made public until after it is signed off in Phnom Penh on Friday.
The Abbott government only confirmed a deal had been reached after the Cambodian government announced Mr Morrison’s impending visit.
Under the agreement, asylum seekers who arrive in Australia by boat and are found to be refugees after being processed offshore on Nauru or Manus Island in Papua New Guinea could voluntary choose to be resettled in Cambodia.
They will have freedom of movement and work rights.
Minister for Immigration and Border Protection Scott Morrison, during Question Time in the House of Representatives. Picture: Gary Ramage Source: News Corp Australia
Mr Morrison, earlier in September, said the arrangement was not about “just putting people somewhere and looking the other way”. Labor is demanding the government release details of the agreement.
It was “completely unacceptable” that Australians were being forced to rely on Cambodia for news of an agreement the government was preparing to sign, opposition immigration spokesman Richard Marles said.
He asked how Cambodia was an acceptable location to send refugees when the coalition rejected a Gillard government proposal to resettle asylum seekers in Malaysia.
The government previously has defended the plan by saying Cambodia is a signatory to the UN Convention on Human Rights. However, the Greens and refugee groups have cited the country’s human rights record and poor economic status.
The Greens have vowed to vote against the “dirty deal” if and when the government seeks parliamentary approval for the agreement. As one of the poorest nations in the world, Cambodia struggled to look after its own citizens, let alone the refugees Australia wants to “dump” there, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.
Women and young girls especially would be at extreme risk of abuse and exploitation.
“The moment those young girls walk off a plane in Cambodia, their lives will be at risk,” she told reporters.
Alister Nicholson was Chief Justice of the Family Court of Australia. He is now a professor of law at Melbourne University and the founder and patron of Child Rights International. He knows Cambodia very well as CRI is assisting the Cambodian government in the establishment of a Cambodian Children’s Court from ground zero. In the following interview he discusses Scott Morrison’s efforts to send 1000 Asylum Seekers from Nauru to Cambodia abrogating Australia’s duty of care for purely political gain at a $40 mill cost +++
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