Cambodia admits first asylum-seekers under Australia deal – official

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia – Cambodia received its first batch of asylum seekers from Australian custody Thursday, June 4, as part of a widely-criticised deal between the two countries.

The refugees – 3 Iranians and one ethnic Rohingya from Myanmar – were flown into Phnom Penh, the capital of one of Southeast Asia’s poorest nations with a weak record for upholding human rights.

“They have arrived now, and we already handed them to the IOM,” Chhay Bonna, the airport’s chief immigration officer told Agence France-Presse, referring to the International Organization for Migration.

Under Canberra’s hardline immigration policy, asylum-seekers who arrive by boat are denied resettlement in Australia and sent to Papua New Guinea and Nauru, even if they are genuine refugees.

The deal was inked last September to allow those granted refugee status in Nauru to permanently resettle in Cambodia.

The UN condemned the deal, while refugee advocates said asylum-seekers do not want to be sent to Cambodia.

Cambodia has also been criticized for its own record of helping refugees, including Vietnamese Montagnards who are often deported.

The mainly Christian ethnic minorities in Vietnam’s mountainous Central Highlands have crossed the border to Cambodia in recent years to escape discrimination.

Their arrival comes as Southeast Asia struggles to handle a migrant crisis that has seen boatloads of persecuted Rohingya migrants and poor Bangladeshis arrive in Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia. – Rappler.com