Over 200 Montagnards forced to return to Vietnam in 2008

Illegal migrants return home voluntarily from Cambodia

01/05/2009
VOV News (Hanoi)

Two hundred Vietnamese people who had illegally crossed the border into Cambodia had returned home voluntarily in 2008 under an agreement between the Vietnamese Government, the Kingdom of Cambodia and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

These people were residents from the central highland province of Gia Lai. They had been provoked and lured by reactionaries to cause political instability in the area.

The UNHCR recently recommended that ethnic people in the Central Highlands should not flee to Cambodia with hopes for asylum and resettlement status in a third country.

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Thirty-Two Montagnards Quietly Deported

By Chiep Mony, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
01 August 2008

Police deported 32 Montagnards to Vietnam without incident Friday, following a protest at a similar deportation two weeks ago.

The 32 Montagnards, who had been denied refugee status from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, were quietly ushered onto a bus at a house in Phnom Penh's Tuol Kork district in the early morning Friday. The bus left the refugee compound as the sun rose.

Friday's operation was conducted without protest, following a street demonstration by Montagnards two weeks ago. During that deportation, armed intervention police were called in before negotiations with the protesters allowed the operation to continue.

Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak said the deportation was the result of a decision by UNHCR and Cambodian police, who found that the Mongtagnards did not qualify as refugees but were nevertheless seeking repatriation in a third country.

"They have no rights as refugees, so we have to carry out the immigration law of Cambodia," Khieu Sopheak said. "They must be deported to their country, Vietnam."

The policy of the Vietnam government is to allow the Montagnards to return to their homes and work and make business "as usual," Vietanm Embassy spokesman Trinh Ba Cam said Friday.

The Montagnards remained simple people, he said, as they had been when they came to Cambodia.

"They will not be accused of doing something, or mistreated by Vietnamese authorities," he said.

A US Embassy spokesman said Friday the US continues to monitor the security and protection of the Montagnards.

"Embassy officials observe repatriations from the UNHCR sites to ensure that the departures are conducted in accordance with UNHCR and Cambodian procedures," the spokesman, John Johnson, said in an e-mail.

US State Department missions in Vietnam have "determined that many Montagnards making the dangerous cross-border journey to Cambodia are doing so motivated by economic factors, rather than fear of persecution," Johnson said.

Montagnard Deportation Sparks Protest

By Mean Veasna, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
18 July 2008

Click here to listen to the Khmer audio program

A police attempt to deport 29 Vietnam Montagnards whose refugee applications had been rejected led to a protest outside a UN refugee house in Phnom Penh's Tuol Kork district Friday morning.

"They were worried that [the UN High Commissioner for Refugees] would deport them to Vietnam," Cambodian Center for Human Rights investigator Ing Kong Chit said. "They asked UNHCR not to send them back to their home villages, because they are afraid of oppression."

Three of the deportees initially escaped police attempts to return the Montagnards to Vietnam, though one was caught and returned with 26 others.

Two returned to the refugee house and led a protest of about 50 more Montagnards over the deportation.

Montagnards have been crossing the Cambodian-Vietnamese border at Ratanakkiri and Mondolkiri provinces since 2001 seeking refugee status from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Those who are not granted refugee protection are returned to Vietnam.

"They [make a claim] to go to third countries, but not to be sent to Vietnam," UNHCR field protection officer Chung Ravuth said. "This is the main topic that they demonstrated over. And then we called them to come inside and start negotiating. We promised them that we would settle the problem."

More than 400 Montagnards are staying in refugee houses across Phnom Penh, Chung Ravuth said.

More than 1,000 refugees have been accepted as refugees and moved to third countries since 2001, most of them by the US, he said.