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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 ...

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. ...

Australia has considered sending up to 1000 refugees to live on a remote island off the coast of impoverished Cambodia under a controversial resettlement agreement,, according to an opposition leader in Phnom Penh. Australian officials have visited several sites to accommodate the refugees now on Nauru, ...

High-level bureaucrats from Australia have visited several sites in Cambodia over the past two months to view properties where refugees from its overseas detention centre on Nauru could be relocated, the Post has learned. Separate sources, who cannot be named because of the sensitivity of the ongoing negotiations, ...

Australia has reportedly installed a key immigration bureaucrat in its Phnom Penh embassy as the government prepares to send up to 1000 asylum seekers in its care on Nauru to Cambodia. Greg Kelly, who formerly headed the detention operations division of the Immigration Department and managed ...

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 ...

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 ...

A controversial deal to allow Australia to send refugees to Cambodia is imminent and could be signed as early as this week, sources have told Fairfax Media. The Australian and Cambodian governments have been negotiating for months over a deal to resettle up to 1000 refugees ...

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 ...

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 ...

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. ...

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 ...

The Greens will attempt to force a vote in the Senate on plans to resettle in Cambodia refugees whose claims for protection are recognised on Nauru and is challenging Labor to block any deal. The party’s immigration spokesperson, Sarah Hanson-Young, is confident any deal with the ...

Cambodia’s strongman Prime Minister Hun Sen has confirmed his impoverished country will accept refugees from Australia in a controversial agreement condemned by human rights and refugee advocates. In his first public comments on the agreement, Mr Hun Sen said Cambodia will be “heart-felt and generous towards ...

Amnesty International on Friday lambasted a pending deal that would see people seeking asylum in Australia to be resettled in Cambodia. “Australia should be ending its offshore processing and detention of asylum seekers, not looking to outsource its refugee responsibilities to another, much poorer country,” ...

Refugees who are resettled in Cambodia by the Australian government will be unlikely to gain employment rights, get an education or be given permanent residency, according to a peak international development body. The Australian Council for International Development said Australia had entered “uncharted territory” by resettling ...

A Senior Cambodian official has said his country has tentatively agreed to accept asylum-seekers who had been seeking to settle in Australia. Foreign Ministry Secretary of State Ouch Borith told reporters there was an agreement in principle to take the asylum-seekers, who are being held in ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...