Federal government announces asylum seeker deal with Cambodia

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison will sign a controversial refugee resettlement deal with Cambodia at the end of the week.

But details of the agreement won't be made public until after it is signed off in Phnom Penh on Friday.

The Abbott government only confirmed a deal had been reached after the Cambodian government announced Mr Morrison's impending visit.

Under the agreement, asylum seekers who arrive in Australia by boat and are found to be refugees after being processed offshore on Nauru or Manus Island in Papua New Guinea could voluntary choose to be resettled in Cambodia.

They will have freedom of movement and work rights.

Mr Morrison, earlier in September, said the arrangement was not about "just putting people somewhere and looking the other way".

Labor is demanding the government release details of the agreement.

It was "completely unacceptable" that Australians were being forced to rely on Cambodia for news of an agreement the government was preparing to sign, opposition immigration spokesman Richard Marles said.

He asked how Cambodia was an acceptable location to send refugees when the coalition rejected a Gillard government proposal to resettle asylum seekers in Malaysia.

The government has previously defended the plan by saying Cambodia is a signatory to the UN Convention on Human Rights.

However, the Greens and refugee groups have cited the country's human rights record and poor economic status.

The Greens have vowed to vote against the "dirty deal" if and when the government seeks parliamentary approval for the agreement.

As one of the poorest nations in the world, Cambodia struggled to look after its own citizens, let alone the refugees Australia wants to "dump" there, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.

Women and young girls especially would be at extreme risk of abuse and exploitation.

"The moment those young girls walk off a plane in Cambodia, their lives will be at risk," she told reporters.