Cambodia-Australia refugee deal valid for 4 years: senior immigration official

The refugee resettlement agreement struck by Cambodia and Australia in last September is valid for four years, according to a Cambodian senior immigration official on Monday.

The deal paved the way for Australia to send refugees, who intend to seek asylum in Australia and are being held in an offshore detention camp on the tiny Pacific nation of Nauru, to resettle in Cambodia.

"The MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) is valid for 4 years. During this period, if either party wants to change or terminate the deal, a written notification is required," Major General Kem Sarin, director of the General Department of Immigration's administration department, told reporters, adding that so far neither side has problem with the MoU.

The official's comments came after some Australian news outlets reported last week that the multimillion-U.S.-dollar deal appeared to have collapsed.

The first group of four people--a Myanmar's Rohingyan minority man and three Iranians--who were held at an Australia's refugee camp in Nauru, voluntarily agreed to resettle in Cambodia on June 4. Since then, they have been temporarily housed in a villa on the outskirts of Phnom Penh under the care of the International Organization for Migration.

However, the Rohingyan minority man had asked to be sent back to his birth country Myanmar, just three months after his arrival because he wanted to reunite with his family, Cambodian Interior Ministry spokesman Gen. Khieu Sopheak said Sunday.

He said the man's request was voluntary and Cambodia would contact the Myanmar government to repatriate him to his homeland. Endi