One of four refugees transferred to Cambodia as part of an arrangement costing the Australian Government at least $55 million has reportedly returned to Burma.
Three Iranians and the Burmese man left Nauru in May and landed in Phnom Penh a month later.
The Cambodia Daily newspaper reported the ethnic Rohingya man was scheduled to fly out of Cambodia on Sunday after asking to leave last month.
The Cambodian government reportedly said the man asked to go because he was homesick.
Australia is giving the Cambodian government $40 million in extra aid after it agreed to take refugees who tried to reach Australia by boat.
The Government is also paying $15.5 million to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) to support the refugees who move there.
"Unfortunately, IOM can't discuss the case due to confidentiality principles, as well as the direct request of the client," they said.
"He has specifically asked IOM not to make any statements to the media regarding his case."
Greens immigration spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young slammed the Australia-Cambodia arrangement as a waste of taxpayers' money.
"$55 million is a very expensive plane ticket for these four people simply to dump them back in the Asia-Pacific," Senator Hanson-Young said.
"The money that Australia has paid that country is a bribe so that people can simply be sent there and dumped there and so the Australian Government doesn't have to look after them," she said.
"This isn't a solution, this is a waste of money and unfortunately we're playing with the lives of refugees."
The group was taken to an Australian-funded villa after arriving in Phnom Penh in June and promised language training and other assistance.
The Government has previously said it was confident Cambodia would resettle more than the initial four, and has said negotiations are underway to find other countries that will take refugees.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-16/refugee-transferred-to-cambodia-returns-home-to-burma-reports/...
Info on International Organisation for Migrants: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Organization_for_Migration
I am interested in this story. But I do have some doubt about certain aspects - as I do with most ABC news articles these days, unfortunately.
Ms Hanson-Young's statement which appears to include the $15.5million to IMO, implies that the money is only for this programme.
Is the former asylum seeker, moving back to Burma permanently?
DEB
