Cambodian groups protest against Australian refugee deal

Not in Our Name

Shame on Refugee Resettlement Deal with Cambodia In Solidarity with Cambodian Civil Society Organisations

On Friday (Oct 17), more than 1,000 of Cambodian people, monks, students, victims of land eviction and representatives of unions and non-government organisations, will march on Phnom Penh’s streets to demand the abolition of the refugee resettlement deal signed by Cambodian and Australian governments to permanently resettle refugees from Nauru in Cambodia.

Protesters will deliver their petitions to Cabinet, National Assembly, Australian embassy, American embassy, UN and EU. They are seeking local and international intervention in cancelling this agreement which they say is not beneficial to either the Cambodian people, or the refugees.

The protest organizer, Mao Pises, Present of Federation of Cambodian Intellectuals and Students (FedCIS) says, “We do not discriminate any refugees coming to live in Cambodia, but I’m afraid that they will not be able to live in a dignity because Cambodia is one of the poorest countries in the world; the situation can be worst than their homeland country. Nowadays, many Cambodians are living in poverty and their children could not access education and without proper health care.

“All public services in Cambodia are much poorer than in Australia, including education, job opportunities (many Cambodians have migrated to Thailand, Malaysia, Korea, etc. to find jobs), health care, human rights (many Cambodians are suffered from been forced eviction and land grabbing), corruption and so on.

“The Cambodian government doesn’t take enough care of its own people, how can they take a good care of those refugees? I think Cambodian government and Australian government are jointly abusing the rights of those refugees if they still continue implementing the resettlement deal which they countersigned on 26 September. Cambodia is not the right place for them to resettle for the time being.”

Eang Vuthy, Executive Director of Equitable Cambodia, points out, ” We call upon the Australian Government to uphold its international obligation and respects the rights of refugees. We also call upon the two countries to consider this deal and ensure that adequate support and protection are provided these refugees.”

Joyce Fu of Corner Link, an organisation based in Australia with experiences working in Cambodia says, “More than half of Cambodian people are currently living under $2 USD per day. The entire country lacks access to some basic infrastructures, such as clean water, electricity and transportation.

“How could Cambodia take Australian refugees when it is creating refugees in its own country due to land grabbing from sugar cane and rubber plantation, dams and railway building and so-called urban development?.”

Ian Rintoul of the Refugee Action Coalition comments, “This is a dirty deal which ignores Australian humanitarian obligations to provide protection to refugees. Cambodia is unable to properly support even its own citizens. We should not be shifting our responsibilities on to desperately poor countries, effectively bribing them to cooperate with Australia to undermine international human rights treaties.”

Dianne Hiles of ChilOut notes “Much of Australian Civil Society stands with the Cambodian people on this cause. We condemn the Abbott government’s inappropriate, immoral and probably illegal deal. Cambodia is perceived as the 17th most corrupt country in the world, according to the Transparency International corruption index. The capacity of public education cannot coop with Cambodians’ own demand. It is most unlikely that the aid funding (extra $40 million over next 4 years) will be properly allocated to support the people, including children, it is intended for.”

We want to send out a strong message to the world, “This is not in our name!”

Contacts: In Australia – Dianne Hiles, Chilout– Children Out of Detention, +61 (0) 487 577 034, diannehiles [at] gmail.com

Ian Rintoul, Refugee Action Coalition, +61 (0) 417 275 713, rintoulian10 [at] gmail.com

Joyce Fu, Corner Link- Taking actions to promote environmental and social justice, +61 (0) 405 365 493, jfu [at] cornerlink.asia

In Cambodia: Mao Pises, President, Federation of Cambodian Intellectuals and Students, +855 (0) 12 592 492, president [at] fedcis.8m.net

Eang Vuthy, EO, Equitable Cambodia, +855 (0) 23 210 805, vuthy [at] equitablecambodia.org

Yeng Virak, EO, Community Legal Education Center, +855 (0) 6677 7000 virakyeng [at] clec.org.kh

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