The United States is planning to deport about 2,000 Cambodians people back to their home, officials said on Thursday.
"We will check their cases one by one in order to decide whether we accept them or not," said Khieu Sopheak, spokesman for the Interior Ministry of Cambodia.
He said that these Cambodians are living in the U.S. illegally or with felonies may face a lot of problems after they return home, such as inability to compromise themselves with the Cambodian society, difficulty to find jobs and lack of trustworthy relatives and friends.
Meanwhile, Jeff A. Daigle, spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Cambodia, told Xinhua by e-mail that the Cambodians to be deported by the U.S. are not Cambodian-Americans.
"The returnees only have Cambodian nationality. U.S. citizens are not deportable," he said.
The U.S. government has provided 577,630 U.S. dollars to the Returnee Integration Support Program (RISP), a local NGO, to help the returnees successfully re-integrate into the Cambodian society, he added.
According to the embassy, 163 Cambodian nationals have been repatriated by the U.S. since 2002.
The U.S. immigration law mandates removal from the U.S. of aliens, who have been convicted of "aggravated felonies" and against whom the U.S. courts have issued finals orders of deportation.
Source: Xinhua
"We will check their cases one by one in order to decide whether we accept them or not," said Khieu Sopheak, spokesman for the Interior Ministry of Cambodia.
He said that these Cambodians are living in the U.S. illegally or with felonies may face a lot of problems after they return home, such as inability to compromise themselves with the Cambodian society, difficulty to find jobs and lack of trustworthy relatives and friends.
Meanwhile, Jeff A. Daigle, spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Cambodia, told Xinhua by e-mail that the Cambodians to be deported by the U.S. are not Cambodian-Americans.
"The returnees only have Cambodian nationality. U.S. citizens are not deportable," he said.
The U.S. government has provided 577,630 U.S. dollars to the Returnee Integration Support Program (RISP), a local NGO, to help the returnees successfully re-integrate into the Cambodian society, he added.
According to the embassy, 163 Cambodian nationals have been repatriated by the U.S. since 2002.
The U.S. immigration law mandates removal from the U.S. of aliens, who have been convicted of "aggravated felonies" and against whom the U.S. courts have issued finals orders of deportation.
Source: Xinhua
35 comments:
Don't take them back. The US sytem
and its society have turned them
into criminals. They were not
criminals before they went to the
US. Therefore, the US must be held
responsible for turning good
people into criminals and for
failing to help them getting their
citizenship. We are not the US
dumping ground.
One big mistake for Cambodians who will be deported is: Why they don't want to be naturalized in the US?
Why? because the damn US education
system failed. They can't read, and
they can't filled out citizenship
paper. Furthermore, the US public
assistant program ain't worth shit.
Need I say more?
fUCK, You just don't understand it IDIOTS. These PEOPLE came to America as tourists and refuse to go back home when their visa expire. They can't work or drive why in hell do they want to stay here for.They are, in the eye of the law, ILLEGAL..
Why can't they stay & live in US ?
They Khmers like yourself, can you guy do something to help them ?
United, we stand.
You all made a good point brothers. Let us fight against this injustice in any way we can.
This is the case of David versus Goliath.
The stupid Cambodian government is so corrupted that they will do anything just to get the green notes from the Yankees.
Where are all those human right activists, why are silent in this matter.
What has happened to Sihanouk who always likes to be seen as the champion of khmers, why does he say nothing still?
I call upon Khmers living the US and Cambodia to stage protests against this unfair treatment of their beloved brothers/sisters in front of the relevant US government buildings...
Have we seen the US government send the Vietnamese or Laotians living in America back to their respestive country? No, because Laos and Vietnam don't give a damn to what the yankees want them to do...
I hope that the CIA or the FBI will not track me down, but I don't give a damn anyway...
There are millions of people who have sacrified everything to reach USA for their last hope. Millions of people from around the world, have made USA their home with full potential of their lives as USA is a world most free country. Why these two thousands Cambodian people have turned themselve to be criminals in the USA?
-They have enjoyed too much of freedom and have forgotten the rule of the laws of other country.
-They are brainless by committing criminal actvities.
-They have lacked of family value and the value they should respect to others.
-They have destroyed themselve their own chance to succeed in lives.
-They have shamed their families and friend and their National hood.
THEY MUST LEARN THEIR LESSON. Areak Prey
Areak Prey, you are right. No one is perfect in this world. No one is as clever as you.
Didn't they already learn their lesson from being convicted of their felonies and sentenced to imprisonment?
They have done the crime and they have done the time. What more should they be punished?
The issue here is that we see USA is bullying Cambodia into accepting these people back, USA knows that they can bribe the Cambodian government with their green notes.
Please try to get the US Ambassador to Cambodia to explain to us as of why Cambodia is their dumping ground, I do not think he would want to face up with this issue...
Hey, if Khmer lives in the US
illegally because of their visa
expired, we should take them back.
No argument there, but if they
have been granted a Permanent
Resident for more than 10 years,
then they should be considered as
Ah Khmer-US, and the US is
responsible for their actions.
Why is it you Cambodians have no problem forcing Vietnamese back to Vietnam no matter how long they have lived in Cambodia, but you don't like it when the USA sends your citizens packing? And it's well known that the Vietnamese and the Chinese are the ones doing all the work in Cambodia!
Why not send them back. They chose their own fate. No one tied their hands and point a gun to their face and say hey "kill that person". You only did it to yourself, then blame it on others. That is how a bad person will always tell you. Look at all the others the came here legal or illegal, they`ve made it. These people just did`nt understand what they had in America is priceless. They had all the opportunity to do the best they can. But chose the other, how sad. Now there is more room for other Khmer Refugee that would love to take advantage of the health care system here, free schooling, scholarships, plenty of jobs all the things you would not have the chance in Cambodia. So shut the F**k about how you feel sorry for these CRIMINALS. Make us here look bad.
10:52am, please get all the facts right before you start jumping into deep shit. The Cambodians did not voluntarily nor illegally come to USA in the first place.
It just goes to show that you are very ignorant and need to learn more about anything, before you start getting into this sort of debate.
In the case that you know no shit, please ask and we will more than happy to lecture you with anything you need to know.
Just go home...
No one feels sorry for the criminals, why not send them to Guantanamo Bay? Why dump them into Cambodia?
Yep! Plus, it is the US excessive
freedoms that cause the messes.
We would never spoil anyone like
that.
i don't think the U.S deported only illegal Cambodians. In fact they deported every nationalitied that they got caught.
Eventhought you feel sorry for them ,you just can't do anything about it .It's the law of the country.I just hope they don't introduce a new bill punishing those who harbored them.
Brother or Sister Yep, I have been noticing a lot of your comments which were very good for the future of Cambodia.
Please do not be shy and try to speak up and you will be fine.
You can be a hero.
Who are you trying to kid, 2:38?
The US is trying to dump their
criminals on our soil. As I said,
we don't mind taking back those
who live in the US with the expired
visa or we don't mind taking back
those who has less than 10 years
of US permanent residency, but
anything else is the US problem,
not ours.
Go tell Hun Sen, Hok Lundy, and Hor Nam Hong, fool!
They get the deal that Vietname refuse.
Yep, that is why we must followed
our neighbor's foot steps.
WELCOME BACK HOME GRINGOS... ALL GRINGOS MUST BE SENT TO PREY SAR INCLUDING THE BEAST GRINGOS WITH THEIR COMMENTS!
ALL MUST BE SENT TO PREY SAR INCLUDING THE SUPPOSED LEGAL GRINGOS AS WELL... !
SHOT GRINGOS ...! A NEW GAME ...
The ignorance of a lot of bloggers above is amazing. They live nicely in the U. S., are U. S. citizens because they were born here, still don't speak correct English, and now dump invective on their new homeland. Only the ones that were naturalized seem to have a better view of the circumstances. You should read up what 'aggravated felony' means. This is serious stuff, like drug dealing, robbery, assault, etc., not just something like shop-lifting for food. It is not just Cambodians who get deported but any other nationality under the same circumstances as well. So what's your beef? Ever heard of self-discipline, and self-responsibility? You become a criminal by choice and if you are not a citizen you are history. Period. It has nothing to do with the school system, though it may not be the best in the world. If you can't learn the language, it's not the schools fault because when you came to this country English was spoken here, and there is no need for schools to cater to all the languages immigrants might speak, unless it is a large segment of the population, like the Hispanics. So it is the immigrant's job to learn the language at least halfway to get along in this country. And let's face it, those being deported are a minority of the Khmer coming to this country, either legally or illegally. Most of them work hard and stay within the law to make a better life for themselves. It is a telling sign of the government's attitude when they need to decide whether or not to accept their own nationals back to the country. This is just like Vietnam who would only repatriate their own citizens working in former Communist East Germany after the German Government paid them $1,000 per head. This happened after 1990. What are these people thinking? Folks, you need to look at the facts.
To those who will be deported to Cambodia: If they are American citizens I think they will not face this problem at all. The question is, why after staying in the US for so long and they don't apply for citizenship.
If it weren't for the B-52 bombing, the Khmer Rouge revolution,and the Vietcong invasion, the US wouldn't have this kind of issue to deal with in the first place!!
These Cambodian people who went to United States faced many difficulty and culture shock and some can make and some don't make it!!!What do you expect man! American prisons are overflowing and these unfortunate people have to go somewhere!!
Research had been done and they found out that majority of the people who committed crime have some form of mental disorder! Mental disorder can be very expensive to solve and American tax payers can't afford!!
9:44pm, as a member of Ku Klux Klan, you think that you know it all and we are a bunch of ignorants?
On what legal ground that these peole can be deported to Cambodia?
These people have been accepted to come to USA under UNHCR convention. Cambodia has the right to refuse this deportation.
Only Cambodia can decides, not you and not the shifty US government either.
In the case you know nothing about the legal implications of this issue, please check with officials of the UNHCR, they will be more than happy to tell you to piss off.
Listen 9:44, your stupid US system
produced some good people and some
bad people, and you can't just
shipped the bad one back to
destroyed us. It doesn't matter
whether they chose to be criminal.
It is your stupid US system that
lead them to the choice. It could
be because you are feeding them
too much Hollywood. It could be
because they are poor, ... , but
noneless, you can't just dump
your problem to us just because
you can't fixed your own problem.
It's simply unfair, you loud mouth
idiot.
what the fuck is the US system? As a cambodian immigrant that had the opportunity to grow up in America I am thankful for the education, the free lunch and the chance to better myself.THE FUCK UPS THAT ARE BEING DEPORTED DESERVES THIS. THE AMERICAN JUDICIAL SYSTEM PUTS UP WITH A LOT OF SHIT.
Hi brothers ans sisters,
Let me add something to this issue of deportation.
By international law, IF only if Cambodia refuses to accept the deportees back, there will be nothing that the US government can do about it.
That is why the US government goes quiet and try to bribe and bully the Cambodian government of the day into accepting these deportees.
Please ask the Cambodian Minister(s) who will be dealing with this deportation: how much will he get from the US government?
Please ask the US goverment to also send the deportable Vietnamese back to Vietnam and see what will the spokesperson of the US government have to say.
Does Cambodia have enough resource to control and supervise these 2000 superstars?
At the end of the day, the Cambodian government just takes the money and let these deportees terrorising their new neighbourhood...
Shame on you Cambodian Government, to accept the deportees in return of bribes!
Shame on you Opposition Political Parties of Cambodia, to go silent when we need your voice!
Shame on you, UNHCR to allow the US to do this to Cambodia.
To all American Cambodians, I call on you to exercize your power, you are the Voice Of America after all.
Please do not vote for the Republicans, should they be able to send the Cambodian Americans back to Cambodia.
Please vote for the Democrats on condition that:
-They will do everything in their power to stop this deportation.
-They will find a better solution to deal with these deportees.
It is time to stand up and be counted.
You live in America, you pay taxes and you should be proud of what you can do, everything little thing counts.
11:45, you stupid idiot, those
criminals deserved punishment not
not deported to destroy other
countries, you moron. No one on
this planet does that. In
Singapore, for instant, if a Khmer
is caught with 300 milligram+ of
heroin, they will not deported him
back here. They will just simply
hang the criminal right on the
spot. You get the idea.
And you are right, 1:40, any
official accepted the criminals
back to cambodia will be condemned
by the Khmer people. However, in
good faith, I am sure official of
the MOI (Ministry of Interior)
will do the right thing for our
country.
And thank you, 4:04, for you
courage to call on people to stand
up against the Evil Empire for
Cambodia.
You know what? U. S. law applies in all U. S. territories, no matter what the UN or its division the UNHR says. If U. S. citizens commit a crime they go to prison. If foreigners commit a crime they can be deported under U. S. law. That's all that's counts. Recent history has nothing to do with this issue. The U. S. did wrong in Cambodia during the Vietnam war era. They tried to make up for this by allowing those refugees in. Vietnamese and Cambodians got preferential treatment because of this. That doesn't mean that those people can abuse the system and turn to crime. Now what is better, to be sent back to Cambodia or to languish in a U. S. prison? And, by the way, I am liberal and not a Republican nor a Ku-Klux-Klan member (ha, ha.).
10:53PM, everybody knows that if foreigners commit a crime in their host country, they will suffer the consequences. If you commit a crime in Cambodia, you will go to Prey Sar and never see the light of the day.
It is good that you admitted that the US did wrong and they accepted the Cambodians, Vietnamese and Laotians refugees to save their face.
And now, 30 years on, why try to do the shifty deal with the Cambodian government in trying to ruin more innocent Cambodians.
Have you seen the Cubans or Vietnamese being deported lately?
You are more than welcome to make any comments, but please do try to understand the issue a bit more and not to be so much arrogant in your superior English language.
I second that, and I like to add
that those criminals are not
foreigners. They are a US PERMANENT
RESIDENTS. Does anyone knows what
the phrase "PERMANENT RESIDENT"
mean? It certainly does not mean
TEMPORARY RESIDENT, does it?
Moreover, the stupid law that they
are referring to is not something
that existed before the arrival of
most indochinese people. They just
innacted it only about 10 years
ago, and it should be abolished.
Asked AH HUN SEN Vietcong slave for being a sucker for trying to take Uncle Sam money in the first place!!!If AH HUN SEN don't take Uncle SAM money these criminals wouldn't be deported back to Cambodia!!!Duh!!
Well, he can take the moneys so
long he don't take the criminals.
Well, trust me. I do understand the situation. First, the term 'permanent resident' signifies you can live in the U. S. permanently but subject to the laws of the U. S. - in this case the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1995, which one blogger above referred to. Nevertheless, you have to separate your own human rights views from the U. S. legal issues, which may or may not be in accordance with your humanistic views. Additionally, the so-called green card is not given for an indefinite period of time but must be renewed every five years, later after 10 years subject to your retaining a passport of your original nationality. Second, even though they are immigrants, they do not enjoy the same civil rights as U. S. citizens, e. g. the right to vote, to form political parties, to contribute to election campaigns, etc. This is not an issue for Cambodians only, but for every immigrant nationality, e.g. British. If a Brit runs afoul of the law he is subject to deportation and Britain will take the person back no questions asked, as do all other European countries. There are people of all nationalities deported on an every-day basis, especially people from Latin American countries. . You can check with the Justice Department for exact numbers. So what people need to understand is that the view of the U. S. government is possibly different from yours, but since you came to this country, and that would apply to any other country as well, you must accept and abide by the laws of that country. There are no two ways about it. That you are Cambodian does not give you any special privileges under the law. Any special circumstances that might apply will be given due consideration by the immigration judge hearing the case. You must know that the deportation process usually takes from 3 to sometimes up to 10 years before a final deportation actually takes place. As opposed to many other, especially third-world, countries you have the right to appeal. Of course, if you don't have appropriate legal representation the process might not take as long. People can't have it both ways - come to this country and enjoy the benefits it offers but when it comes to inconvenient laws they'd rather not accept those. Sorry, that's not how it works. As for the comments, that this country turned your nice fellow Cambodians into criminals, nothing more ridiculous could be said. Just look at the Phnom Penh Post website and check the police blotter. You can see there that Khmer people shoot other Khmer people off their mopeds to steal it. Or check http://www.kohsantepheapdaily.com.kh/ for crimes committed in Cambodia. And so on and on and on. I don't mean to come across as arrogant, and I am not just because I speak and write English. You may have surmised that I work with Cambodians, lived in Cambodia for 4 years, even speak sufficient Khmer, and know their problems inside out, but the law is the law, whether you like it or not.
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