New refugees from Nauru expected in Cambodia next week

By Lauren Crothers

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia

The three latest refugees detained on Nauru to volunteer for resettlement in Cambodia could be arriving as early as this coming week, the country’s immigration chief said Saturday.

The resettlement plan is part of a A$55-million ($42 million) deal inked in 2014 by Cambodia and Australia, which detains asylum seekers who arrive by boat in processing centers on the small Pacific island of Nauru under its hardline immigration policy.

“There are three volunteers to Cambodia,” General Sok Phal, director of the Interior Ministry’s immigration department, told Anadolu Agency, adding that transfer paperwork had been sent to the Ministry of Interior.

Interior Minister Sar Kheng is due back from a visit to China on Monday, Phal said, expressing his expectation that it would be approved upon his return.

“If they approve it, we will talk to the Australian Embassy -- we think next week [the refugees will arrive]. We hope so.”

A source familiar with the situation told Anadolu Agency this week that the three are an Afghan, Pakistani and Sri Lankan.

On Saturday, Ian Rintoul of the Refugee Action Coalition said the volunteers are two Sri Lankans and a Syrian man, and that they are set to arrive in Phnom Penh this coming week.

All three have been offered $15,000 to make the move, he said, adding that the Syrian man is set to be reunited with his family in Cambodia. They have been living in a Jordanian refugee camp since escaping from Syria.

“For the Syrian, it’s a disgrace that he’s being offered Cambodia as some kind of alternative,” Rintoul told Anadolu Agency on Saturday.

“It sounds like they tried to offer a bit more money” to coerce refugees into volunteering, he said, and that also now includes loans to help them set up a life in Cambodia.

For “the vast majority” on Nauru, however, “there’s no real interest” in the deal.

The initial cost of the resettlement arrangement, which was inked in a champagne ceremony in 2014, was A$40 million ($30.5 million).

But that figure was bumped up to a total of A$55.5 million when it emerged that more money was being tacked on to cover logistics costs associated with the first transfer of people.

That group -- three Iranians and a Rohingya man -- have all since left Cambodia, despite being put up for a few months in a villa and given Khmer classes.

A fifth Rohingya man came separately and remains in Cambodia, though he has spoken out about his misery living here.