By Lauren Crothers
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia
Once sold as an ambitious plan to offer refugees held at an offshore detention facility a fresh start at life in Cambodia, a widely criticized multi-million-dollar resettlement deal struck just under a year ago between Cambodia and Australia has essentially faltered.
The Cambodia Daily on Saturday quoted Cambodian Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak as saying that there are no plans to "import more refugees from Nauru to Cambodia."
He then added: "[T]he less we receive the better."
The deal, which was forged in a champagne ceremony in Phnom Penh in September last year, was originally worth AU$40 million ($32 million), but Australia tacked on an additional $15 million in administrative and logistical costs associated with the resettlement of the first and only batch of refugees to agree to the transfer.
Those four, three Iranians and one Rohingya man, have been living in a villa in the southern part of Phnom Penh since their June arrival.
Contacted by Anadolu Agency on Saturday, Sopheak reiterated his position that there are "no plans" for any refugees to come to Cambodia, and that there are also "no plans" for talks to be held between the Cambodian and Australian governments with regard to future transfers.
He said he did not know if any more refugees would ever arrive as part of the deal.
Conditions on Nauru have been described as appalling by rights advocates and in recent days, shocking reports of rapes and sexual assaults on the remote, South Pacific island nation have appeared across Australian media.
Australian immigration rules have been tightened under the present government, with a zero tolerance policy for refugees and asylum seekers who arrive to the country by boat.
Those on Nauru have been told that they will never be allowed to enter Australia, leaving them faced with the choice of either staying on Nauru or volunteering for the transfer to Cambodia.
The Daily quoted Refugee Action Coalition spokesperson Ian Rintoul as saying that efforts on Nauru to convince refugees to come to Cambodia had "essentially stopped."
A request for comment was sent by Anadolu Agency to the office of Australian Immigration Minister Peter Dutton.
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