Like it was yesterday, Youhorn Chea recalls being crammed into the back of a truck by people smugglers and making the dangerous 300-kilometre journey across the Cambodian border into Thailand.

It has been more than 30 years since he fled the Khmer Rouge regime, which claimed both his parents and five of his siblings, but he still remembers every detail; navigating landmines, armed gangs swarming the jungle, soldiers indiscriminately shooting refugees in the night.

No fond memories: Youhorn Chea fled Cambodia more than 30 years ago when the Khmer Rouge was in power. Credit:Wayne Taylor

After a year in a Thai refugee camp, Mr Chea eventually made it to Australia with his family. Now president of the Cambodian Association of Victoria, he has condemned the federal government's plan to resettle refugees in Cambodia, saying the south-east Asian country is still plagued by human rights atrocities.

''They shoot their own people there,'' he said. ''The treatment for the refugees would be very bad. If they don't listen, they will just eliminate them. They will shoot a refugee.''