(The Age) – After months of cozying up to the authoritarian government of Hun Sen, Australia has finally managed to convince Cambodia to accept its refugees from Nauru and Manus Island. Never mind that Cambodia has neither the resources – nor the human rights record – to guarantee the proper resettlement of these asylum seekers. Canberra got what it wanted.
But while Australia is busy trying to offload its refugees on ill-equipped Southeast Asian nations, it is turning its back on over 20,000 Cambodians that its own aid agency helped displace. These impoverished urban families were kicked off their land and dumped onto distant resettlement sites, where they are trapped in a cycle of debt and unemployment. Many fear losing their land a second time.