Khmer Krom ID denied [-No ID for Khmer Krom, but free citizenship for illegal Yuon immigrants?]

Kim Soun, 50, sweeps outside her one-room apartment, where she and her husband have sheltered Khmer Krom returnees from Thailand awaiting ID papers from the Cambodian government. (Photo by: Sovan Philong)

IN DATES: Khmer Krom seek ID in Cambodia

• December 5, 2009: A group of 24 Khmer Krom asylum seekers are deported from Thailand as illegal immigrants. A week later, the group sends letters to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) and the Ministry of Interior requesting identification cards and other assistance.
• December 28, 2009: The UNHCR rejects the group’s request for refugee status, citing a sub-decree handing responsibility for asylum applications over to the government. Three days later, five members of the group leave for Thailand in a second bid for asylum.
• January 13, 2010: District police visit the group of Khmer Krom to gather information, raising hopes that the deportees will receive identification cards and legal recognition.
• January 25, 2010: Boeung Tumpun police official Tep Bora says the information collected by district police has been sent to district authorities. He later acknowledges that the information collected in January is incomplete.
• February 17, 2010: Tep Bora says that information about the Khmer Krom group has again been sent to district officials. The group’s request for identification cards is rejected the following day.

Monday, 22 February 2010
Cameron Wells and Tharum Bun
The Phnom Penh Post

Group of 22 faces bleak future as NGO assistance nears end

A GROUP of Khmer Krom asylum seekers who say they are fleeing persecution in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta region have been formally denied identification cards by police officials, several representatives said Sunday, casting further doubt over the options that will be available to them when NGO-provided assistance runs out at the end of the month.

The Khmer Krom, many of whom were deported from Thailand in December after a failed asylum bid, were told Thursday by Meanchey district police that they lacked sufficient documentation to obtain identification cards, said group representative Thach Soong.

He said police also informed them that their request had been denied because they were not recognised as permanent residents of Boeung Tumpun commune, where they have been staying for two and a half months. Commune officials were also present at the meeting, Thach Soong said.

“They told me that we do not have a permanent place to live, so they can’t provide us with the requested ID cards and other legal documents,” he said.

The asylum seekers and those acting on their behalf have noted that identification cards are necessary if members of the group want to access hospitals, find jobs, enrol in schools and rent houses.

Meanchey district police could not be reached for comment on Sunday, and police in Boeung Tumpun commune could not confirm that the request for identification cards had been denied.

But Thach Thach, president of the Khmer Kampuchea Krom Federation (KKF), provided a video recording of the Thursday meeting, during which at least five unidentified officials could be seen explaining the decision to a group of at least three Khmer Krom.

“According to the law of the Ministry of Interior, we cannot issue the ID cards or [family] books for you, because you do not have a specific address. If we issue the ID card for you, the owner of the house might be confused that you now own the house,” one police officer says in the video.

When one of the Khmer Krom asks again about ID cards, the officer responds: “No, we cannot issue the cards because you’ve lived in the house for two months, and you might stay at a different house another month.”

The original 24 asylum seekers were deported from Thailand on December 5. Since then, five have returned to Thailand out of frustration at the sluggish processing of their requests. Three other Khmer Krom have been deported by Thai authorities and have since joined the group in Boeung Tumpun, where they have been receiving food and shelter from the rights group Licadho.

Licadho has said that its support of the group will cease at the end of February, and Thach Soong said he fears the group will be left homeless and starving. “We will face difficulties. We live in fear, not knowing where to go,” he said. “I appeal to Licadho and the [UN High Commissioner for Refugees] to continue to help with our sheltering and food, so that we can wait for the authorities to solve the issue.”

Am Sam Ath, technical superviser for the rights group Licadho, said staff members there had not yet discussed whether they could afford to continue to provide assistance.

“Any NGOs have their limits to provide assistance,” he said. “We’ll discuss this on Monday, what we can do about their shelter and food.”

He said authorities should have provided the group with the necessary documentation to process the ID cards, rather than demand that they provide credentials they don’t have. Many of the deportees have said that they lost their documentation when they fled Vietnam.

Thach Thach of the KKF called Thursday’s decision “sad”, adding that he questioned the reasoning given by the police.

“How can you have a permanent address [in Cambodia] when you lived in Vietnam?” he said.

He said the UNHCR should reassume responsibility for processing the refugees, after a sub-decree ratified by Prime Minister Hun Sen in December declared the handling of asylum seekers solely a government responsibility.

“It is tough for Khmer Krom,” he said. “They are Vietnamese, but the Cambodian government says they are Khmer. The sub-decree is too much.”
Meanwhile, Ang Chanrith, an independent analyst who is the former executive director of the Khmer Kampuchea Krom Human Rights Organisation, said he was not surprised by the decision, and that he believed the police were carrying out government orders.

“I [knew] that local authorities would not provide the ID cards for them because they are listening to their bosses or superiors,” he said.

KKrom raised in Geneva
Government officials have previously said that the constitution grants all Khmer Krom the right to live in Cambodia, and that they do not face discrimination. This assertion was repeated by a five-person delegation attending a session of the UN committee on the elimination of racial discrimination that took up the issue of the Khmer Krom in Geneva last week.

In written responses to questions posed by the committee, the Cambodia delegation said, “In principle, Khmer Kampuchea Krom are recognised as Cambodian citizens without any discrimination.”

The responses also noted that in order to obtain ID cards, Khmer Krom must have a permanent address in Cambodia and be able to present a birth certificate, a family book and “any verdict from the court to recognise that he/she was born by parents with Khmer nationality”.

In lieu of such a verdict, the Khmer Krom could also present a “Royal Decree on the recognition of Khmer nationality” or “any evidence which shows that he/she was born by parents having Khmer nationality”, according to the responses.

Thach Thach, who was present at the session, said he would like for all Khmer Krom to receive automatic dual citizenship, meaning they would be free to travel between Cambodia and Vietnam.

Police finish documentation for Khmer Krom deportees

Khmer Krom asylum seekers await news on their bid for Cambodian citizenship at a home in Meanchey district on Wednesday. (Photo by: Sovan Philong)

Thursday, 18 February 2010
The Phnom Penh Post Staff

“I request that Vietnamese reconsider the stopping of the freedom to access media ... The Cambodian government ... allows the Vietnamese government and its people the right to set up broadcasting through Cambodia” - SRP MP Ho Vann

DOCUMENTATION necessary for members of a group of Khmer Krom seeking Cambodian citizenship has been completed, a police official said Wednesday, amid fears that the 22 men, women and children who were deported from Thailand last year will lose the financial support of the NGO sheltering them at the end of the month.

Information for the individuals that was originally collected in January was sent to district authorities Wednesday, said commune Police Chief Tep Bora.

“The documents are complete now,” he said. “Before, it was difficult because the documents lacked information.”

The group was deported from Thailand as illegal immigrants after fleeing Vietnam, where they said they endured constant religious repression.

The asylum seekers have been waiting for formal identification from authorities since arriving in the Kingdom.

The identification cards are crucial for the group to visit hospitals, gain employment, enrol in schools and rent houses.

Five of the original group of 24 have returned to Thailand since December, fed up with government inaction regarding the issuing of the cards.

But a further three have since been deported by Thai authorities and have joined the group at Meanchey district’s Boeung Tumpun commune, where they have been assisted by the rights group Licadho.

Khmer Krom representative Thach Soong, 49, said Tuesday the group is still concerned about the lack of information it has received regarding the processing of the ID cards.

“We have completed the documents to send to the commune office and district office, but we have not heard any information,” he said. “We are still waiting to get legal [recognition] in Cambodia because we want to find jobs to support ourselves.”

He said that time is running out for the deportees, as Licadho can support them only until the end of February, and that their rent will run out at the end of March. “We are concerned about living. We have no jobs,” he said.

Vietnamese crackdown
In the meantime, Vietnamese authorities have banned Khmer Krom in Vietnam from watching television or listening to radio broadcasts from Cambodia, activists said, just a day after Cambodia’s Ministry of Information granted permission to the Khmer Kampuchea Krom Association (KKA) to produce programme ideas for state radio stations.

Thach Setha, director of KKA, said he had received word from Khmer Krom living in Vietnam that they had been warned against listening to or watching Cambodian broadcasts.

“Vietnamese authorities have released a written prohibition ... banning all Khmer Krom from watching TV and listening to radio from Cambodia,” he said, adding that Vietnamese authorities were patrolling around Khmer Krom houses and some pagodas. Violators “can face a savage fine of up to 10 million dong (US$535)”.

Sam Rainsy Party lawmaker Ho Vann criticised the prohibition as “racial discrimination”.

“I request that Vietnamese reconsider the stopping of the freedom to access media,” he said. “The Cambodian government ... allows the Vietnamese government and its people the right to set up broadcasting through Cambodia.”

A spokesman from the Vietnamese embassy in Cambodia could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Playing the waiting game

Thursday, 18 February 2010
Sovan Philong
The Phnom Penh Post

Khmer Krom asylum seekers deported from Thailand in December await news about their bid for Cambodian citizenship at a one-room rental home in Meanchey district on Wednesday. The group of 22, who are being supported by local NGOs until their paperwork is processed, say they fled government persecution in their native south Vietnam. Under Cambodian law, all ethnic Khmers are automatically eligible for Cambodian citizenship. (Photo by: Sovan Philong)

Thailand expels Khmer Krom asylum seekers: rights groups

Friday, 20 March 2009
Written by Brendan Brady and Cheang Sokha
The Phnom Penh Post

Rights workers say group was trucked out of Thailand after UN officials previously intervened to secure release of others

FOLLOWING the release Monday of 19 Khmer Krom refugees from a Bangkok prison, the seven remaining in detention were abruptly expelled from the country under suspicious circumstances, according to local rights activists.

Ang Chanrith, head of the Khmer Kampuchea Krom Human Rights Organization, said seven Khmer Krom political refugees were shuttled to the Poipet border crossing in Banteay Meanchey province in the middle of the night Thursday.

The original group of 19 Khmer Krom, who hold refugee documents from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), were released after the UN office petitioned Thai officials to recognise them as legitimate asylum seekers, he said. Ang Chanrith has been working on the case with UN officials in Bangkok and Phnom Penh.

Members of the group released Monday had contacted him early Thursday morning to warn of the departure of the seven left in detention, who were recent arrivals to Bangkok and therefore had not yet been registered with the UNHCR, he said.

"We are concerned they could be taken back to Vietnam," he said.

Escaping the past

Ang Chanrith said all 26 people had fled Vietnam after they feared imprisonment at the hands of authorities there following public demonstrations against limits on their freedom of culture, religion and speech.

Rights groups and Khmer Krom activists have accused the Vietnamese and Cambodian governments of engaging in a persistent and often violent campaign to stifle the rights and distinct identity of the Khmer ethnic group originating from what is now Vietnam's southern Delta.

Hun Hean, provincial police chief of Banteay Meanchey, said he had not heard about the incident, adding that between 100 and 200 illegal Khmer immigrants were turned over by Thai authorities at the border each day.

Suong Sopheap, a program officer with the Cambodian Women's Crisis Centre in Banteay Meanchey, said his staff had attempted to track the whereabouts of the group without success.

"We have staff remaining in Poipet who are continuing to monitor the situation," he said.

Christophe Peschoux, head of the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights in Phnom Penh, said his office was following the case but had not been in contact with the group.

"It's a very tricky situation for Khmer Krom in Cambodia," he said. "Even if the government gives them citizenship, if they agitate from Cambodia it could create tension between the Cambodian and Vietnamese governments; and Cambodia could be pressured to prevent it or hand them over to Vietnamese authorities."

The government has said all Khmer Krom are entitled to Cambodian citizenship, but Khmer Krom activists and rights groups say their status as Cambodians is ambiguous and can be stricken at the whim of the state.