Visiting Australian senator Sarah Hanson-Young yesterday condemned Canberra’s plan to transfer refugees to Cambodia, saying it would plunge them into “a system of uncertainty”.

Under Canberra’s tough immigration policy, asylum-seekers who arrive on boats are denied resettlement in Australia and sent to Papua New Guinea and the Pacific state of Nauru, even if they are genuine refugees.

In September, Phnom Penh and Canberra signed a deal which would allow those granted refugee status in Nauru to permanently resettle in Cambodia, one of the poorest nations in Southeast Asia, triggering widespread criticism including from the UN.

“Australia (is) simply dumping refugees back in a poor country and back into a system of uncertainty,” Hanson-Young, a senator for the Greens party who is a strong critic of the Australian government’s immigration policies, told AFP.

Hanson-Young, currently in Phnom Penh for a fact-finding mission about the deal, said her main concern was that refugees would be unable to “rebuild their lives” in Cambodia.

“They will continue to move. I can’t see how refugees that we send to Cambodia will be able to permanently stay here,” said the senator, citing the country’s high levels of poverty as well as its poor education and healthcare systems.

“It is about governments looking after themselves and ignoring the people,” she added.

The resettlement of refugees to Cambodia is expected to begin later this year, starting with a trial of a small group.

Under the transfer deal, Australia will also give Cambodia A$40mn (US$35mn) in additional aid over four years.

The UN has criticised the move as a “worrying departure from international norms”.

But Australia has strongly defended its plans, saying the programme would start small but be a long-term arrangement.

The deal is Australia’s latest immigration policy to come under fire, having already earned criticism for sending asylum-seekers to PNG and Nauru and turning back Australia-bound boats.

The government maintains the policies are designed to crack down on the people-smuggling trade following scores of lives lost making the journey to Australia in recent years.

Around 20% of the Cambodian population - or 2.8mn people - live in poverty, according to the World Bank.

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