1. Amnesty International condemns the Australian government’s plan to settle refugees in Cambodia.
Immigration minister Scott Morrison yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding which would allow refugees in detention on Nauru to settle in Cambodia. However, a spokesman for Amnesty International has called the move “deplorable.”
“In January the Australian Government condemned Cambodia’s human rights record at a UN human rights hearing, but will now relocate vulnerable refugees, possibly including children, to the country,” Rupert Abott said.
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has also expressed its frustration, saying it was “deeply concerned” by the precedent the deal sets.
Officials are worried that very little of the aid money the Federal Government will be supplying Cambodia will actually be given to the refugees. Instead, it may be pocketed by “corrupt governments,” says Cambodian opposition leader Sam Rainsy.
2. The British government approves air strikes against the Islamic State (IS) insurgents in Iraq.
Britain has sent Six Cyprus-based Tornado GR4 fighter-bombers to Iraq alongside the United States forces following a decisive 524-43 vote to provide military assistance.
British Prime Minister David Cameron told MPs before the vote not to expect a “shock and awe” air campaign; his office would send a small number of service people within hours of the vote to guide air strikes and, possibly, to train Iraqi and Kurdish Peshmerga forces battling IS militant forces.
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ISIS has tortured and executed Iraqi human rights lawyer Samira Saleh Al-Naimi. RIP brave woman.
So a man meets up with all his "friends" from Facebook in real life and it's a social experiment to see if he likes them? Oh the irony.