News
AU tightens Cambodia relation with $40m aid and bilateral agreement on refugees
Foreign minister Julie Bishop announced that an additional $40 million in development assistance was given to Cambodia. The amount shall boost Cambodia’s effort to provide humanitarian aid to those who are in need of protection as part of the Refugees Convention and a member of ...
Athena Yenko
http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/567991/20140929/cambodia-refugees-kingdom-australia-memorandum-agreement.htm#.VCoK8PmSxqU
Australia defends sending refugees to Cambodia
Australia’s Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has defended the government’s plan to transfer refugees to Cambodia, saying the programme would start small but be a long-term arrangement. Under Canberra’s hardline immigration policy, asylum-seekers who arrive on boats are denied resettlement in Australia and sent to Papua New ...
RTÉ News Staff
http://www.rte.ie/news/2014/0927/648375-australia-cambodia/
Cambodia deal says refugees will be settled outside Phnom Penh
The deal signed with Cambodia by immigration minister Scott Morrison will see refugees held on Nauru resettled “outside” Phnom Penh. As foreign minister Julie Bishop defended the deal on Sunday, a copy of the memorandum of understanding with Cambodia, which has been posted on Morrison’s official ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/27/cambodia-deal-says-refugees-will-be-settled-outside-phnom-penh
UN says Australia refugee pact with Cambodia worrying precedent
Australia’s pact to allow some refugees to be transferred to Cambodia sets a troubling precedent for international practices on handling asylum seekers, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. The deal, signed yesterday in Phnom Penh, applies to an initial 200 refugees detained by Australia ...
David Stringer
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-27/un-says-australia-refugee-pact-with-cambodia-worrying-precedent.html
UN refugee agency slams Cambodia-Australia deal
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has distanced itself from Australia’s still unsigned deal to transfer refugees from the Nauru refugee detention center for resettlement in Cambodia, one of Southeast Asia’s poorest nations. First raised in February, the cash-for-refugees deal is believed to be imminent. ...
Michael Sainsbury
http://www.ucanews.com/news/un-refugee-agency-slams-cambodia-australia-deal/71943
Abbott government beefs up staff for 'Cambodian solution'
The Abbott government has sent a senior official to Phnom Penh to take charge of a controversial scheme to resettle refugees from Australia, even before Cambodia signs an agreement to accept them. Australia has also boosted the staff of its embassy in the Cambodian capital by ...
Lindsay Murdoch
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/abbott-government-beefs-up-staff-for-cambodian-solution-20140816-104x0b.html
Cambodia asylum deal to go ahead despite intense opposition
Australia’s secret refugee deal with Cambodia is about to be signed, amid growing opposition to the transfer agreement. With a deal imminent, the office of Immigration Minister Scott Morrison refused to confirm on Monday he was set to travel to Cambodia this week, while the Department ...
Rights groups concerned over Australian refugee deal
Cambodian human rights organizations say they have major concerns over a deal with Australia that could send unwanted refugees to Cambodia. The Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee says Cambodia’s track record of human rights abuse and corruption make people “living on the margins” vulnerable to abuse. Australia ...
Heng Reaksmey
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/rights-groups-concerned-over-australian-refugee-deal/1929653.html
Cambodia says to accept only voluntary refugees from Australia
Cambodia will take in only voluntary refugees from Australia, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said Wednesday. “We will only receive refugees, who voluntarily agree to come to Cambodia, not by force,” he said in a response to questions raised by journalists. “This is ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2014-05/28/c_133367869.htm
Progress, but no ‘final decision’ on Australian immigration deal
Cambodian officials say they have not yet confirmed whether they will accept a request from Australia to receive rejected immigrants. But they do say the request is moving forward. The two sides signed a memorandum of understanding over the transfer of immigrants in April, but a ...
Khoun Theara
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/progress-but-no-final-decision-on-australian-immigration-deal/1924328.html
Is Cambodia engulfed in a human rights crisis?
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has confirmed Australia is working on an agreement with Cambodia that would see refugees currently on Nauru resettled there. But Human rights lawyer David Manne, who launched a successful High Court challenge to the former government’s proposal to resettle refugees in ...
ABC News Staff
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-26/is-cambodia-engulfed-in-human-rights-crisis/5446002
Cambodians wary of Australia refugee deal
Cambodians are worried about an influx of immigrants as the government nears a deal with Australia to accept refugees in return for cash. The two countries have been in discussion since February over plans to resettle an unspecified number of refugees in Cambodia. “Our country’s economy is ...
SBS News Staff
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2014/05/25/cambodians-wary-australia-refugee-deal
Australia close to Cambodia refugee deal
Australia has signaled that it is about to cut a deal with Cambodia to resettle refugees now in Nauru, media reported Thursday. It comes after both Nauru and Papua New Guinea determined the refugees status of some asylum seekers sent to each country by Australian authorities. ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=11&token=MjdmYmU2YTNiMmM
Nauru detainees informed about refugee resettlement in Cambodia
Some asylum seekers at the Australian-run immigration processing centre on Nauru have been advised they will be sent to Cambodia if they are found to be refugees. The advice preempts the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Australia and Cambodia. The ABC understands some family ...
Karen Barlow
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-21/nauru-asylum-seekers-told-about-cambodia-refugee-resettlemen/5468662
As Oz proposal nears, opposition mounting
Opposition to Australia’s proposal to send refugees to Cambodia is growing, with the Australian Greens’ immigration spokeswoman yesterday saying the party would try to block it in the Senate. Sarah Hanson-Young told The Sydney Morning Herald that Cambodia would be “a fundamentally unacceptable place for Australia to dump ...
Cheang Sokha
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/oz-proposal-nears-opposition-mounting
Gov’t still considering taking refugees from Australia
Interior Minister Sar Kheng said Thursday that the government is still considering an Australian government proposal to take in asylum seekers intercepted while trying to reach the country. Speaking on the sidelines of a ceremony to swear in the heads of the new general departments of ...
Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/govt-still-considering-taking-refugees-from-australia-57347/
UN critical of pending asylum seeker deal
Officials with the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Tuesday spoke out for the first time against Australia’s plans to send some of the asylum seekers trying to reach its shores to Cambodia, saying the pending deal was not a “real ...
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/concern-over-migration-chiefs-family-connections-57202/
Australian Minister says Cambodia could take refugees on Nauru
Australian Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said Thursday that Cambodia may soon agree to take in asylum seekers who are now detained on the South Pacific island nation of Nauru after being diverted while trying to reach Australia. Mr. Morrison told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that next ...
Alex Willemyns
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/staying-at-home-not-a-strike-factories-say-56440/
Cambodia will put refugees at risk: academics
Dangerous political instability in Cambodia could put asylum seekers at grave risk, a leading academic has warned, as Immigration Minister Scott Morrison gave his strongest indication yet that refugees may be resettled there. University of NSW emeritus professor Carl Thayer said he was shocked the government would ...
Sarah Whyte
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/cambodia-will-put-refugees-at-risk-academics-20140407-zqrv5.html
Australian PM confirms asylum seeker request
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Friday confirmed that Cambodia was in talks with his government to take in some of the refugees trying to reach his country’s shores, according to Australian media. Mr. Abbott’s statement was the first official admission from his administration that Australia ...
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/australian-pm-confirms-asylum-seeker-request-55850/
PM coy on Cambodia refugee deal
PRIME Minister Tony Abbott is remaining coy about a potential refugee resettlement deal with Cambodia. Immigration Minister Scott Morrison met with Cambodia’s Interior Minister Sar Kheng on Thursday. Mr Morrison is the second minister to travel to Phnom Penh for talks with the Cambodian government in the past ...
The Australian News Staff
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/latest-news/morrison-in-talks-with-cambodia/story-fn3dxiwe-1226874177103