A spokesman for the Australia-based advocacy group Refugee Action Coalition, said none of the five men had their refugee claims accepted yet.

The ABC News reported while the bilateral agreement signed last September stipulates that those resettled in Cambodia must be genuine refugees who volunteered to go, officials in Nauru were inviting asylum seekers whose refugee claims have yet to be processed as well as bona fide refugees.

The government had expected the first refugees to move to Cambodia by late last year, but the asylum seekers on Nauru have proved reluctant.

The Australian Immigration Minister Peter Dutton’s office confirmed yesterday that only genuine refugees would be resettled in Cambodia.

Of the 718 asylum seekers in Nauru from Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, 485 had proven to be genuine refugees by the end of last month.

Another 83 had their claims rejected and another 150 had yet to be assessed. A fact sheet outlining the benefits that refugees would be provided with if they became the first to go to Cambodia, including free health insurance and cash, that was circulated by Australian officials around the detention camp in recent weeks.

Human rights groups have condemned the deal as being dangerous for refugees and have called on Australia to fulfill its own obligations as a signatory to the United Nations Refugee Convention by resettling the refugees.

But Australia refuses to accept any refugees who attempt to reach its shores by boat.

The five men who had accepted resettlement in Cambodia included three Tamil Sri Lankans, a Rohingya Muslim from Myanmar and one Iranian.