Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Viet Nam ends stateless limbo for 2,300 former Cambodians

Some of the former Cambodian refugees at Friday's ceremony in Ho Chi Minh City proudly hold their citizenship certificates. (Photo: UNHCR/S.Vu Anh)

HO CHI MINH CITY, Viet Nam, July 19 (UNHCR) – In a joyous citizenship ceremony, Viet Nam took a ground-breaking step towards closing the last chapter in a 35-year-long statelessness saga for some 2,300 former Cambodians.

"I'm so happy," said a beaming Luong Ve, 77, the oldest among 287 former refugees to receive a Vietnamese naturalization certificate last Friday, a valuable document that will now entitle him to a huge number of rights others take for granted.

It is the culmination of UNHCR's efforts, together with the Vietnamese government, to resolve one of the lingering legacies of Cambodia's bloody 1970-75 Pol Pot regime. The 2,357 former Cambodians who will receive citizenship had fled in 1975 to Viet Nam, where they learned the language and fully integrated into their new country.

The 287 naturalized on Friday in the southern Vietnamese city formerly known as Saigon, live in what used to be two refugee camps set up by UNHCR in 1980. The rest are on track to get their papers by the end of this year.

"This sets an excellent example in the region for resolving statelessness and is a great way to start commemorating the 50th anniversary of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness," said Thomas Vargas, UNHCR's regional protection adviser, who attended the ceremony. He encouraged other Asian countries to take a lead from Viet Nam in finding solutions for statelessness.

Last year, Viet Nam also enacted a new law to plug gaps that had left thousands of women stateless after they married and divorced foreign men.

The valuable new citizenship documents – handed out on a flag-draped stage at Ho Chi Minh City's Department of Justice – will confer the all-important family registration book and ID card that will open the door to health and social insurance, buying a house, higher education and better jobs.

Ho Manh Cong, whose family came to Viet Nam in 1975, was born in Ho Chi Minh City 28 years ago but has never even been able to own a motorbike because he is not a citizen.

"Not having Vietnamese citizenship has created a lot of troubles in my daily life," he said. "I've been working for a company for more than five years but still cannot enjoy social insurance."

For Vu Anh Son, head of UNHCR's operations in Viet Nam, the ceremony was nearly as emotional as for the 287 receiving their certificates.

"I have known most of these people for 10 years," he said. "All they wanted was for UNHCR to help them obtain legal status so that they could live in Viet Nam permanently because there was no other solution that would give them a good future."

"This is what I have been working on with the government of Viet Nam for five years. I'm so thrilled to share the happiness with all the people with citizen certificates in their hands."

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

motherfucker gave citizen to Vietcong mothefuckers???

Anonymous said...

Give freedome to Khmer krom motherfucker ah youn Vietnamese!!!!

Anonymous said...

Give freedome to Khmer krom motherfucker ah youn Vietnamese!!!!

Anonymous said...

Give freedome to Khmer krom motherfucker ah youn Vietnamese!!!!

Anonymous said...

that's nothing! khmer krom still live like prisoners in mekong delta. how about given freedom to khmer krom there for a change. that's more like it! this 2,357 is more like a joke. anybody can do that! khmer krom freedom will count more and real, ok!

Anonymous said...

These are not Cambodian people in limbos. These are former Vietnamese settlers that left Cambodia in the 70s fleeing the war.

They did not have to "learn" the language and integrate. They already knew the language and the culture well.

In an attempt to boost its international image, Vietnam will play a game of trickery and dishonest news presentation.

Anonymous said...

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Anonymous said...

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Anonymous said...

fuck this Vietnamese shit the only good vietcong is the fucking dead vietcong!!!!!!!!!!!!!! fucking Ho chi mon mother fucker

Anonymous said...

They were Vietnamese Cambodians, they always speak Vietnamese, imagine, how hard Vietnameses are bad to non-Vietnamese..

Anonymous said...

The Vietnamese motherfucker should give ah Hor Nam Hong and ah Kiet Choun a renew citizen and bring them to Vietname . The two motherfuckers already speack Viet as a first language and have Youn 's name tooooo!!!!

Anonymous said...

How abour ah Seung and mi KThou????? they now whore and pimpe in Asia!

Anonymous said...

Hey how about Ah Tung and mi Thou???? choy euy chet roy I'm Smer!

Anonymous said...

Ouy! am Hok lanndy family!

Anonymous said...

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Anonymous said...

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www. Khmerwhoreiseverywhere.com

Anonymous said...

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www. Khmerwhoreiseverywhere.com

Anonymous said...

Why can you go back home to Cambodia bitch?

Anonymous said...

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He is a Vietnamese agent being assigned to mess up this website. But most of the readers ignore his messages. So, you can keep on dreaming….
He tries to make Khmer hate Khmer and Thai hate Khmer.

Eh “just google kid = Viet agent”.
Some people might love sucking human cocks.
But it seems to me that you love to suck the donkeys’ cocks; they are bigger and ejaculate more to satisfy your thirst.
Now you have to choose, the human or animals cocks? But, I am sure “doo meh mey” you will pick the donkeys; they are juicier. Keep on sucking you “ăn bẩn thỉu âm đạo=eat filthy pussy”.

Anonymous said...

stupid YUON government. Those people are exactly the YUONs from Cambodia, and now the YUON government makes it like they are doing Cambodia a favor by granting those YUONs Vietnamese citizenship???? The stupid YUONs are good at acting dumb all the time while stealing from the Khmer and fooling the eyes of the world. The Yuons need to pack up and leave the Khmer Krom territory right now! I just can't stand the YUONs sometime. These YUON parasites have hung on to the Khmer land for ages now and it is time to tell their ugly flat faces to stop and let go instead.