The immigration minister, Peter Dutton, said plans to move the first group of refugees from Nauru to Cambodia had been delayed due to “logistical issues” surrounding the involvement of Cambodian officials.
Last week letters were distributed by Australian immigration staff to refugees on Nauru offering them a settlement package in Cambodia. A spokesman for the International Organisation for Migration has confirmed it was sending an official in anticipation of movements.
Guardian Australia understands a small number of refugees on the island have taken up the offer of resettlement.
Dutton told ABC radio on Monday: “There is a lot of misinformation around from people trying to disrupt this process. Now there will be people that will travel from Nauru to Cambodia. There are some within the community that are trying to pressure people not to take up this offer.
“It’s very important to understand that we are obviously discussing and negotiating with the Cambodian government. There are logistical issues with officials from Cambodia being involved in the process. If that’s forced a delay of a couple of days then so be it.”
He added that the transfers “won’t be far off” and said the government was having discussions “with a large number of people on Nauru at the moment”.
On Sunday up to 700 people may have drowned when a boat sank on the Mediterranean. Dutton was asked about the federal government’s approach to stopping asylum seeker vessels and said: “A large part of that success has been us being able to turn boats around when it is safe to do so. So I think we’ve got a very serious issue on our hands and if we allow the boats to restart then we will see deaths at sea.”
The federal government has adopted a policy of secrecy surrounding asylum seeker operations, and Dutton said he did not have “any public comment to make in relation to that matter”.
“At an appropriate time, if we deem that we can release details publicly, we will do that, but I don’t have any information to confirm or deny that,” he said.
