A deal to resettle refugees in Cambodia will be signed by Immigration Minister Scott Morrison on Friday.

The Cambodian government revealed on Wednesday that the country's Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister of Cambodia Sar Keng and Mr Morrison will sign a memorandum of understanding in Phnom Penh on Friday afternoon.

A spokeswoman for Mr Morrison later confirmed the meeting, saying "further details will be provided following the signing of an agreement".

It is understood the resettlement deal will be for up to 1000 asylum seekers who are found to be refugees.

During a National Press Club address earlier this month, Mr Morrison hinted that the deal was close to being signed.

"We are world renowned for what we do on refugee resettlement so, who better is placed than Australia to work with a country such as Cambodia to help them develop that capability to do the job as well," Mr Morrison said.

"If we say they're not supposed to be involved in refugee resettlement, then I'm not quite sure who is."

But the deal has been long criticised by human rights groups who say the country is not equipped to cater for refugees, and who are concerned about the country's chequered human rights record.

Labor Immigration spokesman Richard Marles called for Mr Morrison to "come clean" on the deal, also questioning why the minister had previously rejected the "Malaysia Solution" under the Labor government, in which Malaysia would take 800 asylum seekers from Christmas Island in return for Australia accepting 4000 refugees from Malaysia.

"Scott Morrison needs to provide immediate information about what deal he is about to do with Cambodia," he said.

"Labor has serious concerns about Mr Morrison's capacity to manage another regional arrangement given his disastrous handling of the Regional Resettlement Arrangement with Papua New Guinea."

Greens immigration spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young said it was a "shameful deal".

"Cambodia doesn't have the capacity to look after these refugees, but the Abbott government simply doesn't care," Senator Hanson-Young said.

Cambodian officials say the refugees will be encouraged to work despite the country being among the world's poorest. A majority of people live hand-to-mouth in rural areas.

While initially provided accommodation, they will be told to plan to have their own housing, including outside the capital Phnom Penh.

A key sticking point in negotiations has been Cambodia's insistence that refugees not to be sent to the country against their will, raising doubts that many will agree to resettle in the country with little chance of moving legally to another country.

Shane Prince, a Sydney lawyer who represents refugees, said recently he believed those on Nauru will refuse the Cambodia option "because they will hold out in the hope there is a policy change and they will eventually be able to get to Australia".

An asylum seeker on Nauru said in May that refugees on the island came to get protection from Australia not Cambodia.

"It's not a developed country. It is poor. It cannot look after refugees," said the man who was receiving medical treatment in Australia.

The agreement was negotiated amid a crackdown on dissent and anti-government rallies in Phnom Penh where strongman Prime Minister Hun Sen has ruled with an iron-fist for more than three decades.

Mr Hun Sen was a former cadre of the murderous Khmer Rouge in the early 1970s before he defected to Vietnam before becoming one of Asia's youngest leaders.

He negotiated an agreement in July that saw opposition leader Sam Rainsy's Cambodia National Rescue Party agree to enter Parliament following a year-long political crisis.

But Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Right Watch's Asia division, said the "human rights situation continues to worsen because persons with power get away with a host of actions that include killing activists, seizing land, busting up labour unions, attacking peaceful protesters with deadly force and rounding up people and placing them in prisons on trumped up charges or administratively committing them to abuse detention centres".

Follow us on Twitter