New York-based Human Rights Watch says Australia needs to press Cambodia to implement reforms to ensure better treatment of refugees transferred from Nauru.
In a report released on Friday, Human Rights Watch said it had interviewed asylum seekers and refugees living in Cambodia, and many had raised concerns over access to work, education and health services.
The report said refugees faced extortion and corruption by local authorities, and discrimination by officials and the public.
Refugees in Cambodia said the fear of mistreatment by authorities had kept them from "speaking or joining organisations to bring complaints".
Elaine Pearson, Australia director at Human Rights Watch, said Canberra should not make the refugees on Nauru suffer further by transferring them to a "place unable to adequately resettle or reintegrate them".
"Cambodia should fix its faulty refugee protection and support services frameworks before accepting any refugees from Nauru, and the Australian government should insist on that," Ms Pearson said.
The call by Human Rights Watch comes as Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said she feared the Nauru refugees being sent to Cambodia were being "set up to fail".
Senator Hanson-Young, on a fact-finding mission in Cambodia, met with refugees from Myanmar as well as officials from the UN, non-government organisations and Human Rights Watch, and said she found those already in Cambodia "were nowhere being self reliant.
"They can't get jobs, can't pay for their own accommodation, can't access the health services and have no real standing in the community even though in law they are legal," she said.
"No matter whether they're legally here in the government books they won't be given jobs, they won't have access to local services without any type of formal recognised community ID card..... They're being set up to fail," she said.
Australia's agreement to resettle up to 1000 refugees from the Nauru facilities has sparked international criticism, including from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Under the agreement Australia will provide Cambodia with $40 million in aid over four years, on top of the current $79 million allocated for the 2014/15 financial year.
Refugees will receive Khmer language training, housing and basic living services for 12 months, and then on a case-by-case basis, and health insurance for five years.
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison this week declared Australia's doors would be closed to asylum seekers in Indonesia who had registered with the UNHCR after July 1.
Mr Morrison said the new rules were aimed at stopping the flow of asylum seekers from Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan into Indonesia.
No comments:
Post a Comment