4 Jun 2015

Australia's Nauru refugees arrive in Cambodia

5:11 pm on 4 June 2015

Four refugees who had been in the Australian detention camps in Nauru have now arrived in Cambodia.

They are the first to take part in a resettlement deal brokered with Canberra, which refuses to allow the refugees to settle there.

The refugees - three Iranians and one ethnic Rohingya from Myanmar - were flown into Phnom Penh airport on Thursday.

AAP reports the airport's chief immigration officer, Chhay Bonna says the group is now in the hands of the International Organization for Migration.

The deal with Cambodia, signed last September, allows those granted refugee status in Nauru to permanently resettle in Cambodia.

The United Nations has condemned the deal, while refugee advocates say asylum-seekers do not want to be sent to Cambodia.

Cambodia has also been criticised for its own record of helping refugees, including Vietnamese minorities who are often deported.

The mainly Christian ethnic minorities in Vietnam's mountainous Central Highlands have crossed the border to Cambodia in recent years to escape discrimination.

Australia begins transfers of refugees from Nauru to Cambodia

Australia begins transfers of refugees from Nauru to Cambodia Photo: AFP