Peter Dutton has insisted plans to send the first batch of refugees from Nauru to Cambodia are on track and rejected claims there was a lack of interest.

“There are some within the community at the moment trying to pressure people not to take up the offer, but that is just prolonging their period on Nauru,” the immigration minister told ABC Radio on Monday.



Dutton said logistical issues could take a few days to sort out but he was adamant there were people who wanted to start their lives afresh in the south-east Asian country.

He refused to comment on reports Australia had forcibly returned 50 asylum seekers to Vietnam. An Australian navy ship reportedly travelled to Vietnam late last week as part of a secret border operation.



Dutton told the ABC he would release details at an appropriate time.

The opposition immigration spokesman, Richard Marles, said the minister’s secrecy represented a new low. He called on Dutton to explain what assessments of claims by asylum seekers had taken place and to guarantee they were undertaken individually.

“We need to have confidence that this government has not refouled people against the obligations of the UN convention,” Marles told the ABC.

Dutton also reiterated that Iranian asylum seekers would not be settled in Australia despite Tehran refusing to accept the forcible return of their citizens. He said the government had been specific about plans not to allow asylum seekers who came by boat to settle in Australia and would return people to their country of origin where possible.

The foreign minister, Julie Bishop, during weekend talks in Tehran, did not convince Iran to take back deported asylum seekers but managed to win agreement for their voluntary return.

