08 March 2016•Update: 08 March 2016
By Lauren Crothers
PHNOM PENH
An Iranian couple resettled in Cambodia after being detained by Australia on the South pacific island of Nauru have returned to their homeland, bringing to three the number of refugees who have left the country before even a year has passed.
The pair was from a group of four refugees who volunteered to move to Cambodia last year as part of a AU$45 million ($33.5 million) deal signed between Australia and Cambodia in late 2014.
However, despite being moved to a luxury villa in Phnom Penh and given orientation and Khmer language lessons, a Rohingya refugee returned to Myanmar late last year, and the couple left last month.
Kerm Sarin, spokesman for Cambodia’s general department of immigration, told Anadolu Agency on Tuesday that they left Feb. 12 and did not say why they were leaving.
“They just said they wanted to go back to their hometown,” he said.
“We were not concerned with paying for their flight or whatever; they just filled out the documents and then we negotiated with their government to get proper documents for them to leave Cambodia legally."
Another Iranian man who was part of the original group and a second Rohingya man, who came separately, remain in Cambodia, he added.
“We don’t have any information if there are any other volunteer refugees coming from Nauru,” Sarin said when asked if any others would be arriving in the near future.
Critics have panned the deal as a costly exercise in futility, given that only five people have taken up the offer.
Australia detains hundreds of refugees and asylum seekers on Nauru as part of its policy not to accept any arrivals by boat.
Refugee Action Coalition director Ian Rintoul could not be reached Tuesday, but told Anadolu Agency last month that the deal was as good as “dead” because no one else on Nauru had any interest in taking up the offer.
