Australia confirmed yesterday it would sign an asylum seeker resettlement deal with Cambodia in a move slammed by human rights groups as violating its international obligations.
Australian Minister for Immigration and Border Protection Scott Morrison is due to sign the deal in Phnom Penh today, which could see some asylum seekers currently held by Canberra in offshore detention camps transferred to Cambodia.
The agreement came as the Australian government presented a bill in parliament to reintroduce temporary visas for other asylum seekers held on Christmas Island, an Australian territory in the Indian Ocean, or in facilities on the mainland.
The bill also removes direct references to the UN Refugee Convention from the Australian Migration Act, replacing it with an Australian interpretation of the nation’s protection obligations.
Morrison said the Cambodia arrangement would be “strictly voluntary” for refugees and the resettlement would be permanent.
“Anyone who chooses to go to Cambodia will have chosen themselves to go to Cambodia,” he said at a press conference. “They will be afforded all the same rights under Cambodian law and those that exist under the Refugee Convention and there is no cap on what has been discussed here.”
Human Rights Watch said the arrangement placed refugees at risk and Australia “will be failing to meet the terms of its agreement because Cambodia is not a safe third country.”
The temporary visa arrangements, when passed by parliament, would help clear the backlog of asylum seekers who arrived in Australia by boat last year, Morrison said.
About 1,550 potential refugees, including 436 children and their families and 32 unaccompanied minors, could be eligible for the visas.
Under the bill, the visas are separated into two categories.
Temporary Protection Visas, which last for up to three years, include access to work, welfare, counseling and education support. Safe Haven Enterprise Visas, which are valid for five years, involve placements in regional Australia to fill job vacancies. Refugees who qualify would not be eligible for permanent protection visas, an election promise by the government when it came to power in September last year.
Under Canberra’s immigration policy, boat people arriving since July last year have been sent to camps on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea and the remote Pacific state of Nauru. They are resettled in those countries if their refugee claims are approved.
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