Bangkok: A Syrian man has arrived in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh in a fillip to the Turnbull Government's troubled $55 million agreement to resettle refugees held in Nauru.
Australian authorities secretly transferred the man weeks ago, bringing to just seven the number of refugees on Nauru who have agreed to make the journey to one of Asia's poorest nations.
Only three remain in Cambodia.
Tan Sovichea, head of the Cambodian Interior Ministry's Refugee Department, was quoted by the Phnom Penh Post as saying the man was one of two refugees who agreed early this year to leave Australia's offshore detention centre in Nauru. He said the second unidentified man changed his mind.
The agreement has teetered on collapse since then Immigration Minister Scott Morrison signed it at a champagne-sipping ceremony in 2014.
It has been widely condemned, including by the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR, human rights and refugee advocates and Cambodian opposition parties.
As well giving Cambodia, a country where corruption is endemic, $40 million to sign the agreement, Australia also allocated $15 million to the International Organisation for Migration to look after the resettled refugees.
Most of the refugee arrivals have said they were deeply unhappy living in Cambodia despite promises of money, training and other services.
One of them, Rohingya Muslim Mohammed Rashid, 26, told Fairfax Media last year he felt abandoned and feared he would die in the country.
Others complained of broken promises and discrimination in the majority-Buddhist nation.
An immigration department spokesman did not explicitly confirm the resettlement, according to AAP, citing privacy reasons.
