HAPPY RETURN: friends welcome Cambodian Sokhom Pich back home after his last-minute reprieve from deportation. (Photo: DEAN KOZANIC/The Press)Monday, 22 December 2008
By REBECCA TODD
The Press (New Zealand)
A Cambodian refugee has escaped deportation after an 11th-hour government reprieve.
Friends of Sokhom Pich celebrated his return to Christchurch with a party on Saturday night.
Former associate immigration minister Shane Jones decided to release Pich and allow him to apply for permanent residency just one hour before he was to be deported on November 4.
Members of Christchurch's Cambodian community had appealed to the then Labour government to allow Pich to stay in the country after he was arrested as an overstayer in September.
After living in New Zealand for 11 years, the 47-year-old had exhausted every legal avenue in his bid to remain in the country as a political refugee despite fears he would be imprisoned and possibly killed if he was sent back to Cambodia.
Just an hour before boarding a plane in Auckland, he received the news that he could stay.
"I was really, really, really happy. I was just jumping and it was just amazing," he said.
"I was surprised because in Auckland I was feeling everything was over. For 20 seconds I couldn't say anything."
Pich said he was a member of the opposition Sam Rainsy Party in his home country which criticised the government for corruption and cracking down on political dissent.
"If the government is not good, people live without houses and food and that's not good for the people," he said.
Pich said a number of his fellow party members had disappeared or been killed and he feared a similar fate. "I felt scared and quite nervous about being sent home, but after it came closer and closer I wasn't scared, I wasn't anything."
Cambodian community adviser Bill Noordanus said Cambodian law meant Pich would have been imprisoned for more than three years if he was sent home as he had left the country illegally.
"He's a very fine man. He's an idealist and like all idealists they sometimes clash with the authorities."
Friends of Sokhom Pich celebrated his return to Christchurch with a party on Saturday night.
Former associate immigration minister Shane Jones decided to release Pich and allow him to apply for permanent residency just one hour before he was to be deported on November 4.
Members of Christchurch's Cambodian community had appealed to the then Labour government to allow Pich to stay in the country after he was arrested as an overstayer in September.
After living in New Zealand for 11 years, the 47-year-old had exhausted every legal avenue in his bid to remain in the country as a political refugee despite fears he would be imprisoned and possibly killed if he was sent back to Cambodia.
Just an hour before boarding a plane in Auckland, he received the news that he could stay.
"I was really, really, really happy. I was just jumping and it was just amazing," he said.
"I was surprised because in Auckland I was feeling everything was over. For 20 seconds I couldn't say anything."
Pich said he was a member of the opposition Sam Rainsy Party in his home country which criticised the government for corruption and cracking down on political dissent.
"If the government is not good, people live without houses and food and that's not good for the people," he said.
Pich said a number of his fellow party members had disappeared or been killed and he feared a similar fate. "I felt scared and quite nervous about being sent home, but after it came closer and closer I wasn't scared, I wasn't anything."
Cambodian community adviser Bill Noordanus said Cambodian law meant Pich would have been imprisoned for more than three years if he was sent home as he had left the country illegally.
"He's a very fine man. He's an idealist and like all idealists they sometimes clash with the authorities."
10 comments:
លំបល់កាច់ ចង់លោះព្រលឹងអស់!
Welcome back and best of luck to you.
អក
good luck for you,
Khmer from Germany
Is it true that he will be killed if he returned to Cambodia. The New Zealand government should check if he has ever re visit Cambodia during his 11 years in New Zealand. I can't stand people who is an escape goat. Some people during their asylum seekers application being process as refugees has not even finalise yet, they revisit Cambodia as their holiday. It is so stupid and such a lier. If they can visit Cambodia why would they need to escape from it?
God bless the good hearted folks. Thank you for being good & understanding human beings. A true paradise is where you belong. And that "paradise" will soon be divinely established. Welcome home the good hearted people. Congratulations!! You're in.
shit...nothing to happy about this. shame of him and khmer people. it is inferior. why overstayed, why conflict the law...shame...that is why khmer is always considered like monkey.
Dear Poster 7:42AM
New Zealand has the most perfect immigration system operated in New Zealand. THe assylum seeker cannot travel outside from NZ at all while he has no resident permit or he is still in overstay. It is totally different from France. For non resident permit holder, only students permit and work permit are allowed the holder to depart and to arrive into New Zealand freely. For assylum seeker, once. depart out from New Zealand will not be able to re-enter the country at all. All airline will not allow them to board to their airplane at all. To have successfully accepte as an assylum seeker, that person needs to go through many interviews and checks in Cambodia by NZ officials. Therefore we must congratulate him for his safe stay in New Zealand. Areak Prey
God bless you Sakhon, keep up your good heart for our people and for our country.
9.32 am, thanks for your clarification. I hope his reason to stay in New Zealand is a genuine one.
'He left the country illegally." After 1993 everybody who had the means and gotten a visa could leave the country. And so did Sakhon. How else could he travel to New Zealand? Let's face it he just didn't want to return to poor Cambodia, seeing that life is much better in N. Z. The only way to do that was by seeking political asylum.
Most likely he just want a better life for himself in a prosperous country. I know many assylum seeker from Khmer here in Lowell. The majority are bunch of liars.
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