BREAKING NEWS:  Cambodia is to temporarily accept a total of 300 refugees from Afghanistan. They will be issued with visas on arrival and allowed to use their ID cards as travel documents. They will be exempt from current Covid-19 quarantine requirements but will be tested on arrival in the kingdom.

The decision was announced by Prime Minister Hun Sen on Saturday evening, in response to a request by an international organisation in Cambodia to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The organisation made the request “based on humanitarian principles, while their request for asylum can be processed.”

It is not known how long the Afghans asylum process will take or in which country they have applied for asylum in, but the Ministry of Foreign Affairs says the group will be welcome to stay in Cambodia for as long as it takes, while further discussions with the international organisation concerned are held.