By Lauren Crothers

PHNOM PENH

The sole refugee to volunteer and get clearance to travel to Cambodia under an Australian resettlement program is a Rohingya Muslim from Myanmar, a Cambodian official has confirmed.

General Khieu Sopheak, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, told The Cambodia Daily on Thursday that the man - who is presently detained on the South Pacific island of Nauru - is a genuine refugee.

He added that further background checks needed to be carried out before the man can travel to Cambodia, where Australia wants refugees resettled as part of a $40-million deal signed last year.

Attempts by The Anadolu Agency to reach General Sopheak were unsuccessful Thursday, but he was quoted by the Daily as saying that the man “volunteered to come, through the verification of our Cambodian team.” 

The team is reported to have travelled to Nauru on Monday; the same day a letter disseminated by Australian officials had said the first charter flight to Cambodia could leave.

Interest in the deal, however, has been scant, and the plane has been delayed.

Cambodia has stressed that it will only take genuine refugees, not asylum seekers, and that all transfers must be made on a voluntary basis.

In remarks released by his office Thursday, Australian Immigration Minister Peter Dutton told reporters in Brisbane that there is “a group of people who have accepted that offer and those people will shortly travel to Cambodia.”

Refugees on the island have been told that if they are in that initial group they can expect perks such as cash in hand and income support.

Asked what asiatance - if any - would be given to subsequent groups, Dutton said: “We will have discussions with people in due course, but the offer of assistance now is for those people who first take up this offer.

“We want to demonstrate that this can work and that other people will follow, but we have made it very clear that the arrangements won’t be as generous to those people who have taken the decision and have the courage, frankly, to stare down some of the trouble makers on Nauru."

He said that such "trouble makers" were trying to convince people not to take up the package to go.

Calls to Kerm Sarin, who heads the Interior Ministry’s refugee office at the immigration department, and Ian Rintoul, spokesman for Australia’s Refugee Action Coalition, were unsuccessful.