Cambodia tentatively agrees to boatpeople plan

 29/04/2014

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — A senior Cambodian official said Tuesday 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 camps on the Pacific island nation of Nauru under an agreement with Australia. However, he stressed that Cambodia had not yet approved the deal.

Australian officials had already announced that they were negotiating with Cambodia on the matter.
The boatpeople are mostly from South Asian countries and Myanmar, and the camps on Nauru are considered processing camps rather than settlements.

Australia essentially pays Nauru for hosting the asylum-seekers, and it is generally assumed a similar arrangement would be worked out with Cambodia, although for permanent resettlement.

Ouch Barith told reporters that Cambodia would act out of humanitarain concerns and that a deal did not hinge on how much money it might be paid.

Ouch Borith said Cambodia had established a committee to study the resettlement idea, which came at the initiative of Australia and whose details have not been made public.

There are more than 1,100 asylum seekers in Nauru. Human rights groups claim conditions at the Nauru camp are poor.

Australia also has an arrangement under which Papua New Guinea hosts a resettlement camp, and it also has come under criticism for allegedly poor conditions and human rights abuses.