Australian Greens and Human Rights Watch say Abbott government is misleading refugees about life in Cambodia in a bid to convince them to relocate
Asylum seekers leave Christmas Island for Nauru in 2012. Photograph: Department of Immigration and Ci/AAPIMAGE
Just one refugee on Nauru has taken up the Australian government’s offer to settle Cambodia, according to a Cambodian official.
A Cambodian interior ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak told the Cambodia Daily that a Rohingya man was so far the only refugee who had taken up the officer.
“We have received only one volunteer … and our team is now working with our Australian counterparts,” Sopheak said.
On Wednesday Guardian Australia revealed the immigration minister had prepared a video message asking refugees to take up the government’s offer of settlement in Cambodia. The video was scheduled to be played to refugees and asylum seekers on Nauru on Wednesday afternoon.
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said Peter Dutton’s video sent to refugees on Nauru asking them to settle in Cambodia “smacks of desperation.”
Dutton told the ABC on Thursday the government had received “positive indications” from refugees who wanted to take up settlement and said the government would make an announcement “in due course” on the date of departure.
Hanson-Young said the video was misleading refugees about life in Cambodia.
“We know that the Cambodian government can barely look after its own people, let alone protect the rights of refugees,” she said.
“Forcing refugees to choose between a life of torment on Nauru or a life of poverty in Cambodia is atrocious. Peter Dutton is simply putting these families in a desperate lose-lose situation.
“The Abbott government should stop scrambling around trying to fix the unfixable and just give up on this ill-fated refugee deal.”
Elaine Pearson, the Australian director of Human Rights Watch, described the video as a “misinfomercial”.
“It makes Australia look ignorant or seriously misinformed when Cambodia – an authoritarian, poor and corrupt nation is described as a country offering you “safety, security and opportunity”.
“Seeing Dutton’s audacious performance in that misinfomercial is a bit like watching the shopping channel where you get a free set of steak knives, but Dutton is peddling people’s futures here.
“At one point, Dutton claims going to Cambodia is a ‘choice’, in the next breath, it is the ‘only long-term settlement option’. Bullying people into going to Cambodia will have long-lasting consequences, especially when people realise the Cambodian dream they’ve been sold is not what it’s cracked up to be.”
The minister’s video and a fact sheet distributed to refugees and asylum seekers last week lauds Cambodia’s security and safety.
The government’s own travel advice to Australians who are considering travelling to Cambodia warns of the risks of assaults, armed robberies and of the “very poor quality” of medical and health services.
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