Friday, December 15, 2006

UNHCR: Cambodia To Deport 22 Montagnards [UNHCR cannot provide legal counsel for those denied refugee status?]

Friday, December 15, 2006
UNHCR: Cambodia To Deport 22 Montagnards

By Douglas Gillison
THE CAMBODIA DAILY

Cambodian officials will today deport to Vietnam 22 Montagnard asylum seekers who have been denied refugee status by the UN, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said Thursday.

"We received official notification from the government that there will be a deportation," said UNHCR spokeswoman Deborah Backus, adding that the government only informed UNHCR of its decision Thursday.

"They came here seeking asylum and they didn't qualify for refugee status. They were given the option of voluntarily returning to Vietnam and I think they are quite disappointed to be returning to Vietnam," Backus said.

Most of the 22, who include nine children, eight men and five women, arrived in Cambodia in July and October 2005. All have known since February and March of this year that they did not qualify for refugee status, Backus said.

Since notifying the Montagnards of their rejection, the UNHCR has been preparing them for their return to Vietnam from Phnom Penh, Backus said. She declined to say which refugee facility the Montagnards are being housed at, or what time the deportation will occur.

Backus said only four other asylum seekers have been deported to Vietnam since a forcible deportation of 94 rejected Montagnard asylum seekers from Phnom Penh in 2005 turned violent.

Witnesses to that deportation said that police hit some Montagnards with truncheons and shocked than with electric batons when they refused to leave a Phnom Penh refugee facility.

Long Visalo, secretary of state at the Foreign Affairs Ministry, said that he was too busy to comment.

Canadian Ambassador Donica Pottie said her embassy would be monitoring the deportation.

"We're not attending because we have any particularly concerns or because we think anything will go wrong. This just provides us with on-the-ground information," she said.

A Human Rights Watch representative said on condition of anonymity that the organization was concerned that not all rejected Montagnards had independent legal counsel while appealing their rejections.

Backus said Cambodian officials have declined to provide legal counsel despite requests from UNHCR.

"UNHCR has requested on several occasions for independent lawyers to be available but the government has restricted this," she said.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

So much for the human right organization for helping the Montagnards people to find justice, peace, and freedom!

AH HUN SEN Vietcong slave puppet government are more than happy to invite more human right organization to Cambodia because the HUMAN RIGHT officials are only doing what the Vietcong government told them what to do!

Please don't play around with human life unless it is your life!!