Australia has asked Cambodia, one of Asia’s poorest countries, to take in asylum seekers detained while trying to reach the Australian coast.

On Saturday the foreign minister, Julie Bishop, asked Cambodia’s prime minister, Hun Sen, if Cambodia could house some migrants.

In the 1970s and 1980s thousands of refugees fled war, starvation and the murderous Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, many of them settling in Australia.

“The Australian minister has requested that Cambodia takes in some refugees,” Cambodia’s foreign minister, Hor Namhong told a news briefing with Bishop in Phnom Penh.

“In the past, Cambodians have fled their country to other countries but now it’s time that Cambodia takes in refugees from other countries,” he said.

Hun Sen would “take serious consideration” of the request, Hor Namhong said.

Bishop did not refer directly to the Australian request but said she had discussed co-operation with Cambodia in various areas, including people smuggling.

The Greens said on Sunday the government was disgracing itself globally.

“Once again again it is appeasement of an anti-democratic regime, just like Tony Abbott did in Sri Lanka,” the Greens leader, Christine Milne, told reporters in Hobart.

“Why isn’t Australia standing up for the opposition and the examination of the election rorting that went on in Cambodia rather than appeasing the regime and trying to outsource Australia’s asylum-seeker responsibilities?”

Cambodia’s opposition party has boycotted parliament since the July elections, alleging widespread vote-rigging, and its leaders were taken to court in January for inciting civil unrest.

Australia’s department of foreign affairs said Bishop had discussed Cambodia’s domestic political situation during her meetings.