Abbott government beefs up efforts to urge more asylum seekers at Nauru detention centre to take up resettlement deal

Four refugees who had been held at the Australian-run detention centre on Nauru finally landed in Cambodia on Thursday morning, nine months after a $40m deal was forged with Australia to resettle refugees there.



Shortly after 10am, Malaysian Airlines flight MH754 touched down in Phnom Penh, about 30 minutes ahead of schedule, bearing a Rohingya man, an Iranian couple and another Iranian man – the only four out of hundreds of refugees and asylum seekers to take up the deal to live in Cambodia.

Within 20 minutes, the refugees were off the commercial aircraft and taken by an airport people carrier to the VIP terminal, which is typically used by royalty, government officials and dignitaries.

By 10.30am they had been bundled into a waiting van. The Iranian woman wore a black hooded top, which she kept over her head as she got into the van, the curtains of which were drawn tightly across the windows. Another male refugee, wearing a polo top and sports cap, could also been seen getting in. The van sped away, followed shortly after by another bearing officials from the Australian embassy.

Their arrival comes after Cambodia deported dozens of asylum-seeker Montagnards back to Vietnam, where they claim they are persecuted for their Christian beliefs and culture. In 2009 Cambodia forcibly deported 20 Uighur asylum seekers to China at gunpoint.

The Australian government is redoubling its efforts to urge more asylum seekers and refugees on Nauru to take up the resettlement deal. A new five-page fact sheet, seen by Guardian Australia, is being circulated to asylum seekers within the detention centre.

The letter says: “Cambodia has one of the fastest-growing economies in south-east Asia, based on tourism, manufacturing, agriculture and construction. You will have the right to apply for jobs and run a business, as do other migrants in Cambodia.”

It adds that “football and martial arts are very popular in Cambodia”, and touts the benefits of working, living and studying in Cambodia, and says health insurance will be provided for “up to five years”.

The controversial deal has been decried by rights groups and refugee advocates, who have criticised Cambodia’s record of treating refugees poorly. The agreement was signed at a ceremony in Phnom Penh in September by the Cambodian interior minister, Sar Kheng ,and Australia’s then-immigration minister, Scott Morrison.

Morrison’s successor, Peter Dutton, attempted a hard sell of Cambodia to detainees on Nauru in April, when a letter circulated among them promised cash incentives and other perks for being among the first group to take the offer of resettlement. In a video obtained by Guardian Australia at the time he reiterated that none would ever be allowed to settle in Australia and urged the refugees to go to Cambodia.

Phil Robertson, the deputy director of the Asia division of Human Rights Watch, accused Australia of “throwing tens of millions of dollars at Cambodia to take these refugees, despite Cambodia’s recent record of ejecting asylum seekers from Vietnam and its threat to throw out even more if some other country doesn’t agree to resettle them”.

“Cambodia clearly has no will or capacity to integrate refugees permanently into Cambodian society,” he said.

“These four refugees are essentially human guinea pigs in an Australian experiment that ignores the fact that Cambodia has not integrated other refugees and has already sent Montagnards and Uighur asylum seekers back into harm’s way in Vietnam and China.”

Two weeks ago, it emerged that a further $15.5m was being spent on the transfer of the four refugees, who were taken from Nauru to a holding facility in Darwin before they arrived in Phnom Penh on Thursday.

The International Organisation for Migration is providing logistical and technical support to get the refugees settled in Cambodia, which includes putting them up in a villa for the next few months.

Denise Coghlan, director of the Jesuit refugee service in Cambodia, told Guardian Australia that she was “glad that Cambodia offers hospitality to refugees, particularly the Rohingyan, who has been turned back by other countries including Australia”.

But she hoped “the same compassion will apply to the other refugees in the country, especially the Montagnards”.

Rupert Abbott, Amnesty International’s research director for south-east Asia, said Cambodia had a poor record of protecting asylum seekers and human rights.

The refugees’ transfer coincided with the release of a new Amnesty International report on civil dissent in Cambodia, and the aggressive tactics used by the government to curb protests.

“Protesters in Cambodia have had to brave batons and sometimes bullets to voice their opinions. Over the past two years people have taken to the streets to demand their rights like never before, but the authorities have regularly responded with violent repression,” Abbott said.