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Aussie Refugee Ploy for Cambodia Condemned as 'Madness'

Saturday, November 22, 2014
BANGKOK: Cambodian authorities frequently extort money from asylum seekers living in the impoverished nation, according to an investigation that raises new concerns about Australia's plan to send refugees there.

Asylum seekers have also told of how they are targets of discrimination in the country, often paying inflated prices for food, work equipment and basic necessities because they are not Cambodian.

''There is a foreigner price and a local price,'' a refugee told Human Rights Watch investigators. ''But we can't afford the foreigner price.''

A Sri Lankan refugee said people call him a terrorist and use offensive words against him because he is an ethnic Tamil.

Human Rights has released a report detailing how asylum seekers and refugees living in Cambodia face hardships including difficulties obtaining employment, denial of access to education, substandard access to health services, extortion and corruption by local officials.

Refugees said fear of mistreatment by Cambodian authorities kept them from speaking out or joining organisations to bring complaints.

The report's release follows similar claims by Australian Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young during a visit to the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh this week.

Ms Hanson-Young described sending refugees to Cambodia as ''madness,'' saying what she had seen in Phnom Penh's slums had hardened her opposition to the plan, which has been condemned by human rights groups, refugee advocates and Cambodia's opposition MPs.

The Abbott government is paying almost $40 million in additional aid over four years to Cambodia in return for the country accepting an unstated number of refugees who volunteer to resettle outside Phnom Penh.

They will be offered accommodation, training, food and loans to start small businesses over their first 12 months in the country.

Human Rights Watch called on the Australian government to press Cambodian authorities to implement key reforms to improve treatment of refugees in Cambodia before transferring any people from the tiny Pacific island of Nauru who are being encouraged to take up the Cambodian option.

''The Australian government shouldn't make the refugees in Nauru suffer further by dumping them in a place unable to adequately resettle or reintegrate them,'' said Elaine Pearson, Human Rights Watch's Australian director.

Human Rights Watch interviewed 10 of 63 refugees living in Cambodia and spoke to refugee and migrant support organisations, human rights groups and United Nations agencies.

Years after arriving in Cambodia - one of Asia's poorest nations - not one refugee had received a Cambodian residence card or citizenship, depriving them of availability to basic services.

The refugees are issued only a ''parkas'' proclamation by the Ministry of Interior that confirms their right to stay in Cambodia.

But the proclamation cannot be used for many official purposes.

''This piece of paper is absolutely useless,'' a refugee told Human Rights Watch.

''To get a job, a driver's licence, open a bank account, buy a motorbike or even receive a wire transfer, you need to show a passport, not this piece of paper.''

Some refugees said they are in a dire financial situation and would be unable to survive in Cambodia without support of the Jesuit Refugee Service.

Refugees told of how they rarely go outside because when they do they often face extortion, bribery and corruption.

A self-employed street bread seller said: ''We have to pay bribes just to be able to sell food.''

Another refugee said the main problem in Cambodia was discrimination and mistreatment based on a person's financial status.

''But it is also worse if you are a refugee with the wrong skin color and not the right religion,'' one said.

''Money will buy you everything, but if you haven't got money then you can't protect yourself and can't protest about discrimination and mistreatment.''

One refugee had advice for refugees on Nauru: ''This is a corrupt country. You will not find jobs.

''We have been here more than two years and we have no money and not enough to eat. It's better to wait in Nauru. It's a very, very bad life here in Cambodia . . . there is no future.''

Comments

Comments have been disabled for this article.

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Maybe it is time for the world (United Nations or some authority) to start issuing a document that is effectively a passport for the millions of displaced persons around the world.

I can give you one very good example. In Nepal, near Pokhara (the start of the Annapurna trekking route), there is a village encampment of displaced Tibetans who have no identity. They have been there some 55 years, with generations born in Nepal, still with no identity. They scratch a hand to mouth existence, forgotten or ignored by the outside world.

I am sure there are many more examples all round this planet.

Posted by Logic on November 22, 2014 09:12

Editor Comment:

I fail to see the benefit in issuing ''passports'' to the displaced. Passports have no value unless they come with the sense that the person has a home and a nationality. This is why Burma is pushing the stateless Rohingya into the sea. A UN document would do nothing to change the situation.

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If Australian Government(s) host refugees in Australian Papua Guinee and Nauru, why not give them a chance to build up a life in Papua Guinee? Instead of giving all this enormous amounts of money to Cambodia government, spent on developing Papua Guinee. Let the refugees make it a country. Offer there accommodation, food, training, loans for 1 year. Just giving money to Cambodian government is idiot. It will not reach refugees, we see that. it looks more like a 'pay off'.

Posted by Kurt on November 22, 2014 13:00

Editor Comment:

I suggest you do some research about New Guinea then perhaps think again, Kurt.

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Mr, Editor, Half the part of New Guinea was dutch, and is now Indonesian. The Dutch did and Indonesia now explores minerals. Also the Australian part of New Guinea is 'loaded' with minerals, oil, perhaps gas as well. Do I miss something?

Posted by Kurt on November 22, 2014 13:16

Editor Comment:

The part we're talking about has some serious problems. The Germans rather than the Dutch were interested at one time. PNG as a suitable destination for refugees? Cambodia has a lot to recommend it.

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Anyway, the present 'practice/solution' seems to be a disaster, reading PW story of Lindsay Murdoch today. Anything else could work out better (?).

Posted by Kurt on November 22, 2014 13:24

Editor Comment:

If there was a developing country that could match PNG's violent crime rate or Cambodia's lack of opportunity for poor outsiders, I have no doubt Canberra would jump straight in.

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"The Germans rather than the Dutch were interested at one time." Utter nonsense.
The Dutch used to have it.

Posted by FS on November 22, 2014 20:42

Editor Comment:

You are thinking about Western New Guinea, which is now divided into two provinces controlled by Indonesia, not Papua New Guinea, the country to the east, which has a history involving Germany.

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A foreigner price and a Nationals price sounds familiar.

Posted by slickmeelb on November 23, 2014 00:22


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