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                  Cambodian PM Defends Australia Refugee Deal

   by Ron Corben

   Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen is trying to ease concerns over the
   social and economic costs of the country's plan with Australia to
   receive refugees. U.S.-based Human Rights Watch has called for the deal
   to be halted until Cambodia improves its refugee support system.

   Hun Sen spoke out in defense of the refugee resettlement program in a
   letter he wrote last week to opposition politician Kem Sokha, the
   National Assembly's first deputy president.

   Cambodia's Phnom Penh Post newspaper published details of the letter
   Monday, reporting the prime minister defended Cambodia's ability to
   host the refugees, saying some 85 asylum seekers in a 2009 program from
   countries including Pakistan, Sudan, Myanmar and Vietnam have already
   been resettled.

   He said services for the new arrivals would all be paid for by
   Australia through the $35 million resettlement program.

   The agreement signed in September has been widely criticized by rights
   groups and the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, who have said that
   refugees in Cambodia already face steep financial and logistical
   hardships in the impoverished country.

   Elaine Pearson, Australian director at Human Rights Watch, said
   Cambodia needs to reform its refugee resettlement program before people
   arrive under the Australian deal.

   "The experience in Cambodia has been quite bad for these existing
   refugees. I mean they faced all sorts of problems. None of them have
   been offered proper residency documents and as a result at every step
   of the get-go they have to pay petty corruption and fines. A lot of
   them are unemployed, they are just staying at home. They don't want to
   be at risk of having to pay money to the Cambodian authorities," said
   Pearson.

   Refugees that qualify for the Cambodia resettlement are presently
   housed on the Pacific island Nauru. They were already rejected for
   asylum status by Canberra under the Australian government's tougher
   policy towards people who arrive via boat.

   Australia has been working in recent years to make it more difficult
   for asylum-seekers to reach its shores, arguing that many of the boat
   arrivals are economic migrants, not people in need of asylum.
   Authorities have also said that by cracking down on boat arrivals, they
   are discouraging human smugglers from making dangerous sea voyages.

   Australia is planning to fund temporary accommodation and resettlement
   services for those refugees who voluntarily go to Cambodia, for at
   least one year, and then support on a case-by-case basis. Australia
   says it will also provide health insurance over five years.

   But refugees in Cambodia have only an interim document - a prakas -
   confirming a right to stay in Cambodia, but insufficient for other
   official purposes, including opening a bank account.

   Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, a member of the Green Party in Australia's
   parliament, conducted a week-long assessment in Cambodia this month and
   said the country is ill-equipped to deal with the needs of another
   group of vulnerable people.

   "No matter whether they are legally here on the government books they
   won't be given jobs, they won't have access to local services without
   any type of formal recognized community ID card, they won't even be
   able to buy a sim card, buy a motorbike, open a bank account so someone
   could send them some money. They're being set up to fail," said
   Hanson-Young.

   An Australian Catholic nun, Sister Denise Coghlan, who has worked in
   Cambodia since 1990, said the refugees will need trauma counseling,
   given the impact of detention in the Nauru camp and adjustment to
   Cambodia. Sister Coghlan fears Australia is setting a precedent in its
   dealings with refugees.

   "I am really ashamed of Australia for offloading its responsibilities
   anywhere, but it's difficult to understand why they choose some of the
   poorest countries with a lot of poor people, to provide another group
   of people who will struggle in the beginning. I feel badly about that.
   Australia is setting an incredibly dangerous precedent if it starts
   selling off refugees," she said.

   The Human Rights Watch report called on Australia to closely monitor
   implementation of the scheme and for the Cambodian government to work
   with relevant U.N. agencies and non-government groups to ensure the
   refugees are treated fairly and provide official assistance.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/cambodian-pm-defends-australia-refuge
   e-deal/2531839.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/cambodian-pm-defends-australia-refugee-deal/2531839.html