Cambodia Turns Away Montagnard Asylum-Seekers From Vietnam
FRA – 10/01/2015
Cambodian authorities on Wednesday refused a request for asylum made by nine
Vietnamese Montagnards who had traveled to Phnom Penh to ask for help, and whose
presence in the country had previously gone unreported.
The nine arrived in the capital on Sept. 30, but were turned away by the
Ministry of Interior, which refused to register their names, a U.N. rights
officer posted to Cambodia told RFA’s Khmer Service on Thursday.
“OHCHR was alerted to the arrival of nine new asylum seekers yesterday
requesting assistance,” Wan-Hea Lee, Office of the High Commissioner for Human
Rights (OHCHR) representative in Cambodia wrote in an e-mail.
“I understand that they were also refused registration by the Refugee
Department, as have all others who crossed over this year,” she wrote.
The group, which had traveled to the capital from northeastern Cambodia’s
Ratanakiri province, had earlier told local contacts they feared being returned
to Vietnam, where they said they face political persecution, one Ratanakiri
villager said.
“The Vietnamese authorities are cracking down just now,” the villager said,
adding that another Montagnard, traveling alone, had entered Ratanakiri on Sept.
28.
“They are being persecuted. The Vietnamese authorities want to arrest some of
them, and some of the others were just recently released.”
Chhay Thi, Ratanakiri provincial coordinator for the rights group Adhoc,
confirmed that the group had been present in the area for at least a week and
said he had told U.N. representatives of their request for help.
Disputed status
Cambodian authorities maintain that the nearly 200 ethnic Montagnards who have
crossed into Cambodia from Vietnam’s Central Highlands since late last year are
not political refugees, but farmers who have entered the country for economic
reasons.
In mid-July, a dozen Montagnards who had sought refugee status in Cambodia
willingly returned to Vietnam after Hanoi gave assurances it would not punish or
discriminate against them. It is not known what happened to them after their
return.
While turning away the Montagnards, a senior Ministry of Interior official told
RFA on Thursday that Cambodia will accept as refugees two Rohingya Muslims from
Myanmar currently detained by Australia on the small Pacific island of Nauru.
“We have seen their documents,” Kem Sarin, head of Cambodia’s Immigration
Department, said, adding that immigration officials will travel to Nauru to
interview the two asylum-seekers before they come to Cambodia.
“They have volunteered to settle in Cambodia, and after we speak to them we will
return here to request permission from the government to accept them,” he said.
In April, Cambodia granted asylum to an Iranian couple, an Iranian man, and a
Rohingya Muslim from Myanmar who had sought asylum in Australia but were denied
entry, being held instead for months in a camp in Nauru for refugees unwelcome
in the country.
In exchange, Australia promised to pay more than U.S. $40 million in costs and
aid to Cambodia, drawing criticism from rights groups who noted that Cambodia
had forced asylum-seekers from China and Vietnam back home.
The Rohingya man later asked to be returned to Myanmar.
Reported by Ratha Visal, Sek Bandit. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in
English by Richard Finney.