DPA
Phnom Penh - A group of 23 people claiming to be Montagnard refugees seeking asylum from Vietnam were transported to Phnom Penh and put under the care of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), a human rights official said Monday.
Pen Bonnar of the Ratanakiri provincial arm of the local human rights group Adhoc said 10 refugees had been found by his group in that remote north-eastern province Friday, 12 more had been found Saturday and one had made his own way into a UNHCR camp later the same day.
'UNHCR applied to the Cambodian government for permission to bring them to Phnom Penh, and the government agreed,' Bonnar said by telephone. 'They are now in Phnom Penh.'
He did not release details of their ages or sex.
The Montagnard issue is a politically sensitive one, and Cambodia has strong diplomatic ties with neighbouring Vietnam, where the majority Christian ethnic minority live.
However, Cambodia has agreed to allow the UNHCR to assess Montagnard refugees who make it across the border for resettlement in a third country.
Rights groups and Montagnards have alleged human rights abuses against the community in Vietnam. Montagnards fought on the American side during the Vietnam War and are still viewed with some distrust by the Vietnamese government.
Pen Bonnar of the Ratanakiri provincial arm of the local human rights group Adhoc said 10 refugees had been found by his group in that remote north-eastern province Friday, 12 more had been found Saturday and one had made his own way into a UNHCR camp later the same day.
'UNHCR applied to the Cambodian government for permission to bring them to Phnom Penh, and the government agreed,' Bonnar said by telephone. 'They are now in Phnom Penh.'
He did not release details of their ages or sex.
The Montagnard issue is a politically sensitive one, and Cambodia has strong diplomatic ties with neighbouring Vietnam, where the majority Christian ethnic minority live.
However, Cambodia has agreed to allow the UNHCR to assess Montagnard refugees who make it across the border for resettlement in a third country.
Rights groups and Montagnards have alleged human rights abuses against the community in Vietnam. Montagnards fought on the American side during the Vietnam War and are still viewed with some distrust by the Vietnamese government.
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