Nauru to Cambodia refugee delay due to logistical reasons: Dutton

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has blamed “logistical issues” for delaying the first flight of refugees to Cambodia.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has blamed “logistical issues” for delaying the first flight of refugees to Cambodia from Nauru, rejecting activists’ claims that asylum-seekers are refusing to sign up for the resettlement deal.

Mr Dutton, interviewed this morning, also refused to divulge any further information about a reported naval operation to hand back to communist authorities about 50 Vietnamese asylum-seekers intercepted at sea, citing “operational matters”.

Mr Dutton cautioned against engaging in “megaphone diplomacy” with Iran over its refusal to accept asylum-seekers whose refugee claims have been rejected, but insisted they would not be resettled in Australia and risked remaining indefinitely in immigration detention.

The Immigration Department had planned to commence flights to Cambodia for three to five refugee families whom Nauruan authorities have determined to have genuine fears of persecution in their home countries, but that has been delayed.

Amid controversy over the department’s claims about living standards in Cambodia, Mr Dutton accused activists of spreading “misinformation” about the southeast Asian kingdom “to disrupt this process”.

“There will be some in the community at the moment who are trying to pressure people not to take up the offer, but that is just prolonging their period on Nauru because they are not under any circumstance being settled in Australia,” Mr Dutton told ABC Radio.

“It’s very important to understand that we are obviously discussing and negotiating with the Cambodian government — there are logistical issues in relation to officials from Cambodia being involved in the process — if that’s forced a delay of a couple of days then so be it. But in relation to the claims that people aren’t prepared to go, they are false.

“I think we’ll demonstrate the success if those people arrive in Cambodia, if they establish their new lives, they’ll be able to message back I think that the refugee advocates and those who sought to disrupt the process did so with some sort of good intent I’m sure but in the end they were misinformed.”

The $40 million resettlement agreement stipulates refugees will only be sent on a voluntary basis, with the number of refugees to be determined by Cambodia.

Refugee Action Coalition spokesman Ian Rintoul said at the weekend: “Immigration officers have been approaching both refugees and asylum seekers but there is still no confirmation that any refugee has signed to be sent to Cambodia.”