The Melbourne Age
September 29, 2014
Australian Immigration Minister Scott Morrison and Cambodian Interior Minister Sar Kheng hold a flute of champagne after signing a deal to resettle refugees from Australia to Cambodia. Photo: Getty Images
On Friday Immigration Minister Scott Morrison signed a deal with Cambodian Interior Minister Sar Kheng ("Ministers silent on details of $40m Cambodia 'pay-off', September 27).
Surely the $40 million is nothing more than a bribe for the Cambodian government to accept the secret deal, since the details have been withheld from the Australian people.
Since one aspect is known, that only those who are deemed to be refugees who voluntarily choose to be resettled in Cambodia will go there, what happens if not one of them makes that choice? What happens to the $40 million? Does Australia get it back?
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison recently signed a deal with Cambodia to resettle refugees there. Photo: Andrew Meares
Mila Yates Valentine
Australia's plans to send refugees from Nauru, which is bankrupt, to Cambodia is the last straw in the actions of a desperate and immoral government ("Fears for refugee children's future", September 26). It is well known that Cambodia is one of the most corrupt countries in the world – millions of aid dollars disappear each year.
We travelled to Cambodia two years ago and were appalled at the plight of families who lived on the streets of Phnom Penh, begging for scraps from the high fenced-off restaurant diners, many of whom were corrupt government officials, driving apparently unregistered Lexus 4WDs while the rest get about on old bicycles or walk. Graft and corruption is a way of life there. Our tuk-tuk driver had to pay extra bribes to ensure that his son was able to study at a senior high school level.
We donate annually for a water tank for Cambodian schools as well as to help pay for school children's dental care but we donate via the Buddhist Library, the only aid organisation that we can trust to deliver the aid where it is needed.
What possible hope is there for refugees, having to compete with the local Khmer people for jobs, the limited healthcare which comes at the cost of a bribe to the right officials, in a culture which is totally alien to them and which will do nothing to assist them to integrate. If the Cambodian government can't and won't help its own people, why would they assist refugees?
Our government is sending planes and military aids to the Middle East with reason to fight terrorism for our freedom. Is that also the reason we sent refugee children to Cambodia detention centres so they can enjoy that freedom as well? I noticed that Scott Morrison toasted a drink to that deal with the Cambodian ministers. Mr Morrison, how can you sleep at night?
Adriaan Tent Bonnells Bay
I'm sick with disgust to be a citizen of a country that through its wealth abrogates responsibility for those seeking refuge by bribing Third World countries. The new low is the deal to send refugees to Cambodia. On Morrison's own admission they are risk-taking, free-thinking individuals who will do well there. We know they are poor and would relish the peace and safety and the chance to work for our minimum wage. Good, we have a country nearly as big as the US, replete with dying towns desperately needing a fresh vision, abattoirs to be staffed, crops to be tended and no one here wants to do it. We have enough chemical engineers and PhDs cleaning or driving taxis now. How ethnocentric to think that with our riches and a black heart we just supplant foreign nationals into Cambodia, a country emerging from war and steeped in poverty. No economy to provide work, no welfare, no social services: a nation which cannot look after its own. Be proud Australia.
Phillip Atkinson Chippendale
Scott Morrison should know better than to persist to speak of "voluntary" resettlement. Voluntary implies free choice, which is simply not the case for boat refugees sent to Manus Island, Nauru, etc and now Cambodia. For these unfortunate refugees, it is akin to adding insult to injury.
Steve Ngeow Chatswood
Scott Morrison travels to Cambodia, seals a deal for refugees, sips champagne and allows photographs but refuses to answer questions. Why? Operational matters or embarrassment?
Michael Clayton Hunters Hill
I do not have a problem with Scott Morrison drinking champagne but toasting an agreement with Cambodia for just five refugees to be transferred to Cambodia can only be regarded as an absolute farce.
Forty million dollars is an enormous sum of money in Cambodia. Is there a plan B if the system fails and no more refugees agree to go to Cambodia? The five refugees should be living in luxury but in a country where I have observed many locals living on the streets with no more than a sheet of plastic to protect them, I cannot see the Cambodians accepting refugees who will be granted many privileges the locals could only dream of.
Robyn Lewis Raglan
Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop tells us that Cambodia is "keen" to be part of a "regional solution" to the refugee and asylum seeker problem (ABC Insiders, September 28). How can Cambodia not be keen with the kind of money the Abbott government is offering its corrupt leadership?
Cambodia is "keen" so that's good enough for the Australian mob in power. Never mind its suitability as one of the poorest and most corrupt countries in the region.
Why has the UN deemed the arrangement unacceptable if all is in proper order under the UN Refugee Convention as Bishop wants us to believe?
Rajend Naidu Glenfield
2 comments:
Mr. Scott Morrison, do not create crime in Cambodia. Cambodia has been suffered enough, you have known already that 3 millions khmers have been killed and murdered during the 1975 to 1979 by the youn rouge( vietcong) disguised as khmer rouge and still continue until to day. I thought Australia was a humanity country but was not. Now Australia has committed crimes with Hun Sen government puppet of Hanoi, giving bribe to crook government. You might have something dirty behind closed door with the thug gov. Shamed on you, take your money back, as i am a native khmer I hate this kind of inhumane act.
shamed on you baster, be honest for once. hypocrite, and slick . Dare not to accept the truth.
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