The Refugee Action Coalition has condemned the refugee resettlement arrangement about to be signed by Australia and Cambodia.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday\u2019s deal is the latest installment in the Australian government\u2019s excruciating efforts to punish asylum seekers,\u201d said RAC spokesperson Ian Rintoul.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe arrangement with Cambodia exposes the monumental policy failure of offshore processing,\u201d Rintoul said. \u201cEverywhere you look, Abbott and Morrison\u2019s plans are coming unstuck. First, we were told that Nauru would resettle refugees: that proves now to have been hollow talk. None of the resettlement arrangements promised in PNG have eventuated either. The Cambodia deal is highly controversial in Cambodia itself. How long before it falls apart too?<\/p>\n
\u201cRefugees kept on Nauru should be given a home here. Refugees need the enduring protection which only Australia can offer. They should not be shunted from one poor country to the next. Cambodia should not be asked to take on a responsibility which Australia refuses to.<\/p>\n
\u201cShamefully, the Coalition government is trying to draw yet another poor country into undermining the human rights of refugees.<\/p>\n
\u201dCambodia is one of the world’s least developed countries and has no infrastructure for resettlement. It is also guilty of refoulement: in 2009, it deported two Uighur refugees seeking asylum there. The Uighurs are now in gaol in China, the very country in which they face persecution.<\/p>\n
\u201cCambodia is not able to adequately provide for its own internally displaced people. The government has its own history of violating human rights. Many asylum seekers already in Cambodia are living in poverty on the margins of society. There is no prospect for refugees to have access to jobs, housing, or education.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople also have a right to know how much time and money has been spent on the government\u2019s endless wheeler-dealing in the region,\u201d Rintoul said. \u201cHow many millions of dollars did it take for Cambodia to agree to take our refugees? How many schools and hospitals, in Cambodia and Australia, could have been paid for with the money the government has wasted on sweetening Cambodia to accept this deal? How much unnecessary deprivation and further suffering will be inflicted on refugees by sending them to Phnom Penh?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCambodia has stated it will only take people who go there voluntarily. If only Australia showed the same level of respect for refugees\u2019 rights,\u201d Rintoul said. \u201cRefugees on Nauru are right to refuse to go to Cambodia. Australia is the only country where they can have the permanent protection they need.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll Nauru asylum seekers should be brought here to have their claims processed and then be resettled. This is the only sensible, humane as well as the most economical course of action.\u201d<\/p>\n
For more information contact Ian Rintoul mob 0417 275 713<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Refugee Action Coalition has condemned the refugee resettlement arrangement about to be signed by Australia and Cambodia. \u201cToday\u2019s deal is the latest installment in the Australian government\u2019s excruciating efforts to punish asylum seekers,\u201d said RAC spokesperson Ian Rintoul. \u201cThe arrangement with Cambodia exposes the monumental policy failure of offshore processing,\u201d Rintoul said. \u201cEverywhere you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":311091,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3416","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-press-releases"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/311091"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3416\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refugeeaction.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}