Australia's immigration minister Peter Dutton says Canberra is in negotiations to find new third party resettlement options for its refugees, whom Australia refuses to settle itself.
Mr Dutton has told the ABC the government is in discussions with parties other than Cambodia, which he says remains committed to resettlement despite objections from refugee advocates.
He has not named the countries in question.
To date, Australia has run detention centres in Papua New Guinea and Nauru for some of its asylum seekers and transferred a handful of refugees to Cambodia.
When Australia launched its policy of processing asylum-seekers abroad in 2001, it unsuccessfully approached among others Tuvalu, Kiribati, Fiji, Palau and Tonga.
Australia begins transfers of refugees from Nauru to Cambodia Photo: AFP