Sri Lankan asylum seekers who were sent back by Australia wait to enter a magistrate's court in Galle
Sri Lankan asylum seekers who were sent back by Australia cover their faces as they wait to enter a magistrate's court in the southern port district of Galle July 8, 2014. REUTERS/Stringer

Australia has signed the controversial refugee transfer deal with Cambodia on Friday. The deal seeks to resettle refugees in the South East Asian nation. In Phnom Penh, immigration Minister Scott Morrison signed the deal with Cambodia's interior minister Sar Kheng.

Commitment of Australia

An official statement after the event said the MoU will entail Australia to use its experience in assisting Cambodia to strengthen the settlement support to refugees directed to Cambodia. It also reiterated the commitment of Australia that it will bear the direct costs of initial support to refugees and capacity building for Cambodia to ensure appropriate flow of resources to receive and integrate the refugees successfully. The statement claimed that the deal will not breach the international refugee convention, reports The Guardian.

UNCHR Concerns

The statement also added that Austrlia and Cambodia will work with the UN High Commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) to implement the deal. But António Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees condemned the deal and expressed concern at the precedent it is setting and called up Australia to reconsider the plan. Meanwhile, the Human Rights Watch asked the Australian government to explain the logic of choosing Cambodia for refugee settlement, when that country has a track record of not looking after refugees and asylum-seekers. There are also cases of refugees being forced by Cambodia to return to their countries and face persecution.

Ian Rintoul of the Refugee Action Coalition also told BBC that Cambodia was a poor country with a record of corruption. The group is planning protests in Sydney. The UN refugee agency has estimated that as of August 31, there were a total of 1,084 people on Manus Island and 1,233 people in Nauru. Cambodia is already taking acre of 70 refugees and 20 asylum-seekers to Australia.

Tow Back Policy

Australia's current policy, also known as Tow back or turning back boats, mandates detaining asylum-seekers offshore. After scrutiny, they will be sent outside Australia. The asylum seekers are mainly from Sri Lanka, Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran. They travel to Australia's Christmas Island by boat from Indonesia. The detailed refugees are normally sent to various detention centres in Nauru and Papua New Guinea.