Morrison said the Australian government would fund some “resettlement packages” for refugees moved to Cambodia, but declined to detail the costs. He added that around 60 asylum seekers on Nauru were due to have their protection claims finalised within the month and those found to be refugees would be eligible for temporary visas in Nauru.He conceded there was no deal on permanent resettlement for refugees on Nauru, which has the world’s second smallest country population of 9,378 citizens. The agreement was never there for permanent resettlement in Nauru but there will be a lengthy period of temporary resettlement in Nauru, he said. Morrison’s comments have drawn renewed criticism from politicians opposed to the negotiations. The Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the Cambodia plan was aimed at “shipping human suffering around our region”. “Boosting refugee processing in the region and resettling larger numbers of people in Australia will ease the burden and give people a safer option than boarding a boat,” Hanson-Young said. “The current offshore detention regime is untenable and expanding it to include Cambodia, one of the poorest nations in the region, will only make it worse.” Human rights advocates have also drawn attention to Cambodia’s poor human rights record and the fact that, according to the World Bank, 20% of Cambodians live beneath the poverty line theguardian/world/2014/apr/11/australia-in-early-discussions-with-cambodia-on-refugee-transfer
Posted on: Tue, 15 Apr 2014 00:17:49 +0000