Officials still trying to coax asylum-seekers on Nauru to relocate

Australian officials are still trying to coax asylum-seekers on Nauru to relocate to Cambodia.

Peter Dutton said more refugees had expressed interest in going to Cambodia.

Australian officials are still trying to coax asylum-seekers on Nauru to relocate to Cambodia, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton says, despite a senior Cambodian official describing the scheme as a “failure”.

Five refugees have been transferred to the southeast Asian kingdom under the government’s $55 million arrangement with Phnom Penh, although three of those have returned to their home countries of Myanmar and Iran.

In an interview broadcast at the weekend, Cambodian government spokesman Siphan Phay agreed the program was a “failure” but noted “at least we relieved from the camp” on Nauru.

“They don’t want to be in Cambodia. They want to be in Australia or they want to be (in a) third country (with) more GDP, like land of promises like the United States or Europe,” he told Al Jazeera.

“They have their own destination, not to get out from the troubled area, but a destination where it’s their choice to be there … I think Cambodia is safe, but it’s not their choice.”

Mr Dutton said more refugees had expressed interest in going to Cambodia, but refugee activists had told them to “hold out, don’t accept the package, you will stay in Australia and eventually you will outlast the government”.

“The difficulty with Cambodia is getting people on a voluntary basis to go because that’s the arrangement — that people must go on a voluntary basis — and the difficulty is that people express interest but then are quickly told to dismiss any interest by these advocates,” the Immigration Minister told ABC radio.

Mr Dutton insisted the government would not change its policy.

“The government’s policy is that we will settle record numbers of refugees out of Syria, out of Iraq, out of other places in the world, including Africa, those that are in desperate need that have seen their families slaughtered — we are not taking economic refugees.”

Mr Dutton at the weekend announced there were no children held in immigration detention on the Australian mainland.

Asked about group of children still living at the detention centre in Villawood, western Sydney, Mr Dutton said they enjoyed the same freedom as any asylum-seekers living in the community while their claims were processed. Others may be sent to Nauru, where asylum-seekers are not confined to the detention camp, she said.