Aussie 40 mln USD Cambodian refugee center an "expensive joke": Opposition

The Australian government's 40 million U.S. dollar refugee resettlement program based in Cambodia had been slammed as an "expensive joke" on Wednesday by the opposition after it was revealed just five people have been processed at the center.

Of the five people who agreed to be moved from Australia's processing center on Nauru, just one is still in Cambodia, An Iranian couple voluntarily left to go home in late February and a Burmese refugee also chose to return home last October.

Opposition immigration spokesman Richard Marles called the situation an "expensive joke", but Australia's Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has defended the program which is currently being used by one refugee.

He said the government's aim was not to provide an easy resettlement program but to stop illegal immigration to Australia.

"I think that is a pretty good outcome," Peter Dutton told the Nine Network Wednesday.

"We have been very clear about the fact if you come to Australia by boat you will never settle here," he said.

Meanwhile, Marles said the program was a "serious failure" and a waste of 40 million U.S. dollars' worth of taxpayer funds.

"The inability of this government to secure a meaningful resettlement arrangement with a credible third country is a serious failure," he said overnight.

The Australian government offered the Cambodian government 30 million U.S. dollars in aid money to take refugees, but only five of 400 refugees that were at the Nauru processing center took the offer.

A further 10 million U.S. dollars was allocated for the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) to handle the resettlements. However, it said the Australian government was yet to settle the bill.

Refugees who are processed by Australia offshore are entitles to return to their country of origin at any time. Endit