Iranian refugees resettled in Cambodia under Australian deal choose to go home

Two Iranian refugees, brought to Cambodia under a resettlement deal with Australia, have gone back to Iran, meaning just two of five people who have moved to the kingdom under the controversial scheme remain in the country, a local newspaper reported Tuesday.

Director of the Interior Ministry's Refugee Department Kerm Sarin said the pair, an Iranian couple in their 40s who were among the first four arrivals who touched down in June 2015, had returned home on Feb. 12.

"They volunteered to go back. They didn't (give) any reason. They went back to their hometown. It was a man and a woman; they didn't say they were unhappy. They have a right to stay or to leave, so if they enjoy staying in Cambodia, they stay; if they don't want to, if they want to go back home, it's up to them," Kerm Sarin was quoted as saying by the Phnom Penh Post.

The pair's departure comes after another of the June arrivals, reportedly a Rohingya man from Myanmar, also chose to return home in October because he was "homesick," according to an official.

Now only two refugees from Nauru remain in Cambodia -- a young Iranian man who was among the first four, and another ethnic Rohingya man from Myanmar, secretly transferred from Nauru to Phnom Penh in November.

Cambodia and Australia signed a refugee deal in September 2014, under which Cambodia agreed to take refugees held by Australia on the Pacific Island of Nauru in exchange for 31 million U.S. dollars in aid and another 12 million U.S. dollars to cover resettlement. Endit