4 Australia bound refugees choose to resettle in Cambodia: Deputy PM

Four refugees held in Nauru have chosen to resettle in Cambodia, Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sar Kheng said Thursday.

"According to the initial information, four persons have applied for resettlement in Cambodia, but we have not approved their requests yet because we need to check their qualifications whether they are qualified enough for refugee status," he said.

The four applicants are a Myanmar's Rohingyan minority man, an Iranian couple and an Iranian man.

Sar Kheng said it remains unknown when the first group of the refugees is sent to Cambodia.

Cambodia and Australia have signed the refugee deal, under which Australia will send refugees, who intend to seek asylum in Australia and are being held in an offshore detention camp in the tiny Pacific nation of Nauru, to resettle in Cambodia.

The deal has drawn criticism from human rights groups and opposition parties in both countries. They claimed Cambodia is too poor to take in Australia's refugees and accused Australia of shirking its human rights responsibilities to other poorer and under-resourced nations.

Cambodia said it is its international obligation to take in refugees because it is a signatory to the 1951 Refugees Convention and 1967 Protocol related to Refugees. Endi