Activists outraged over Cambodia-Australia refugee deal

Australia's Immigration Minister Scott Morrison smiles during an interview with Reuters in Phnom Penh September 26, 2014. REUTERS/Samrang Pring

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Cambodia will resettle potentially hundreds of refugees intercepted trying to reach Australia in exchange for $35 million in aid, forging ahead on Friday with an opaque deal widely condemned as a threat to asylum seekers' safety.

Australia's Immigration Minister Scott Morrison dismissed criticism that Cambodia, one of Asia's poorest countries, was an unsuitable partner to take in refugees given its lack of humanitarian capacity and history of human rights abuses and corruption.