The lies Oz government is telling refugees about Cambodia
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The lies Oz government is telling refugees about Cambodia
The lies our government is telling refugees about Cambodia
The Australian government has devised a “fact sheet” to tell refugees in Nauru what they could expect from life in Cambodia. But the fact sheet is full of lies.
The Australian government is telling refugees in Nauru outright lies about the reality of life in impoverished Cambodia, which has been ruled by a ruthless dictator for almost 30 years.
Its efforts are outlined in an extraordinary five-page document, “Settlement in Cambodia Fact Sheet”, which was issued to refugees and obtained by Crikey.
But it appears the Abbott government has a strange understanding of “facts”.
The document states that the first flight to Phnom Penh will be as early as April 20, which is next Monday. It was last updated on April 10.
Yet Crikey understands from a number of sources that there has been no interest from refugees currently in the Nauru refugee camp and that as of last week, the Cambodian government had received no applications for resettlement. It is also understood that extraordinary pressure is being applied by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection — the result of pressure from cabinet — on detainees in an effort to get “some bums on planes”, as one insider put it.
The document states that the average monthly wage in Cambodia is $130 and that “residents have a good standard of living”. Only in Canberra can anyone think that $130 a month buys a good standard of living anywhere.
Decent working people I know in Phnom Penh live three to a tiny room, have no indoor plumbing, and bare wood or dirt floors. And these are not the poor people.
The fact sheet states that Cambodia is safe. It is not, especially after dark. I personally know at least three people who have been mugged in the past year, including one female friend. On my second-to-last visit — I have been about 10 times in the past two years — thieves on a moving bike tried to wrest my mobile phone from me while I was travelling in a tuk tuk. Oddly, the document states that here are no problems with stray dogs — again an outright fib.
The document says that Cambodia is a democracy, yet Prime Minister HE took charge — after 12 years of coexisting with rivals — in a coup d’etat. While there have been elections since, HE has never lost. The opposition and aid groups audited the last election and found multiple irregularities, including ghost voters and opposition supporters missing from the rolls. The legal and prison system is utterly corrupt, something I also know from first-hand experience trying to help a friend trapped in the system.
The fact sheet states — twice! — that Cambodia has “good healthcare for the region”. More nonsense: anyone with anything serious is medi-vacced to Bangkok. Only Laos and Myanmar have worse healthcare in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Continue reading: http://www.crikey.com.au/2015/04/16/exc ... -cambodia/
The Australian government has devised a “fact sheet” to tell refugees in Nauru what they could expect from life in Cambodia. But the fact sheet is full of lies.
The Australian government is telling refugees in Nauru outright lies about the reality of life in impoverished Cambodia, which has been ruled by a ruthless dictator for almost 30 years.
Its efforts are outlined in an extraordinary five-page document, “Settlement in Cambodia Fact Sheet”, which was issued to refugees and obtained by Crikey.
But it appears the Abbott government has a strange understanding of “facts”.
The document states that the first flight to Phnom Penh will be as early as April 20, which is next Monday. It was last updated on April 10.
Yet Crikey understands from a number of sources that there has been no interest from refugees currently in the Nauru refugee camp and that as of last week, the Cambodian government had received no applications for resettlement. It is also understood that extraordinary pressure is being applied by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection — the result of pressure from cabinet — on detainees in an effort to get “some bums on planes”, as one insider put it.
The document states that the average monthly wage in Cambodia is $130 and that “residents have a good standard of living”. Only in Canberra can anyone think that $130 a month buys a good standard of living anywhere.
Decent working people I know in Phnom Penh live three to a tiny room, have no indoor plumbing, and bare wood or dirt floors. And these are not the poor people.
The fact sheet states that Cambodia is safe. It is not, especially after dark. I personally know at least three people who have been mugged in the past year, including one female friend. On my second-to-last visit — I have been about 10 times in the past two years — thieves on a moving bike tried to wrest my mobile phone from me while I was travelling in a tuk tuk. Oddly, the document states that here are no problems with stray dogs — again an outright fib.
The document says that Cambodia is a democracy, yet Prime Minister HE took charge — after 12 years of coexisting with rivals — in a coup d’etat. While there have been elections since, HE has never lost. The opposition and aid groups audited the last election and found multiple irregularities, including ghost voters and opposition supporters missing from the rolls. The legal and prison system is utterly corrupt, something I also know from first-hand experience trying to help a friend trapped in the system.
The fact sheet states — twice! — that Cambodia has “good healthcare for the region”. More nonsense: anyone with anything serious is medi-vacced to Bangkok. Only Laos and Myanmar have worse healthcare in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Continue reading: http://www.crikey.com.au/2015/04/16/exc ... -cambodia/
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Re: The lies Oz government is telling refugees about Cambodia
If they're truly refugees, shouldn't they be happy with any safe country that doesn't persecute them?
Why do they deserve better than the 16+ million Cambodians? If Cambodia is too dangerous for them then isn't it too dangerous for Cambodians, and shouldn't the Khmer be given priority as we have more dealings with ASEAN than whatever Mid-East shithole they've come from?
Like most obnoxious NGO pricks I've encountered, they're perfectly happy shitting over a group (in this case, Cambodia) to force their narrative, which in this case is the leftist ideal of open borders for Westernized countries vaguely disguised as "humanitarianism".
Why do they deserve better than the 16+ million Cambodians? If Cambodia is too dangerous for them then isn't it too dangerous for Cambodians, and shouldn't the Khmer be given priority as we have more dealings with ASEAN than whatever Mid-East shithole they've come from?
Like most obnoxious NGO pricks I've encountered, they're perfectly happy shitting over a group (in this case, Cambodia) to force their narrative, which in this case is the leftist ideal of open borders for Westernized countries vaguely disguised as "humanitarianism".
This is particularly asinine, as if a single anecdote trumps countrywide statistics. Maybe because I know people who have been robbed in Australia it's too dangerous to settle "refugees" here, too?I personally know at least three people who have been mugged in the past year, including one female friend. On my second-to-last visit — I have been about 10 times in the past two years — thieves on a moving bike tried to wrest my mobile phone from me while I was travelling in a tuk tuk.
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