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Sochet, a returnee from the US, describes his transition to Cambodia during an interview yesterday at the Returnee Integration Support Centre in Phnom Penh. (Photo by: Rick Valenzuela)
Wednesday, 01 September 2010
Brooke Lewis and Vong Sokheng
The Phnom Penh Post
THE executive director of an NGO that is the first point of contact for many Cambodians deported from the United States said yesterday that members of its board would meet this month to discuss closing the organisation because of a lack of funding.
“I’m setting up a board meeting in September,” Kloeung Aun said. “If we can’t find funding, we’ll close.”
The announcement came one day after officials said at least 10 Cambodians who had been living in the US would arrive in the Kingdom after being deported. They were among almost 50 awaiting deportation.
All the returnees are former legal permanent US residents who have served prison sentences for aggravated felonies, a classification that was expanded in 1996 to include some crimes that were previously misdemeanours.
A total of 229 Cambodian nationals have been deported from the US since a controversial bilateral repatriation agreement was signed in 2002.
Kloeung Aun said yesterday that the Returnee Integration Support Centre, an NGO based in the capital, meets all returnees at an Immigration Department facility where they are held upon arrival.
He said that the RISC could sign for the release of returnees who had no family or friends to collect them from the immigration centre, and offered them temporary accommodation and support in obtaining identification such as passports and family books.
He said the closure of the RISC would mean “great hardship” for many returnees, especially those who would not know anyone upon arriving in the Kingdom.
“I don’t know where they would go,” he said.
The US embassy in Phnom Penh and Koy Kuong, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said on Monday that at least 10 returnees were expected to arrive on Tuesday.
Yesterday, however, both Koy Kuong and the US embassy said they had received no further information, and could not confirm when the returnees would arrive.
Chhuor Kimny, chief of immigration police at Phnom Penh International Airport, said yesterday that no returnees had arrived, and that an unspecified number were scheduled to arrive on Thursday.
Officials at the Immigration Department referred questions to National Police spokesman Kirt Chantharith, who could not be reached for comment.
Three recent returnees said yesterday that the RISC had provided invaluable support as they struggled to adjust to life in a country that was completely foreign to them.
A 31-year-old returnee who identified himself as Veasna said he left the Kingdom when he was a year old, and that he hadn’t known anyone or had any identification documents when he arrived last December.
He stayed at the RISC for the first month after his arrival, and said he still relies heavily on the centre despite having found a place of his own.
“RISC is everything for us,” he said. “This is where I come to every day. If RISC closes, where am I gonna go?”
A 35-year-old returnee who identified himself as Sochet said he left Cambodia when he was four, and didn’t know anyone when he returned early this year. He said that as well as practical support, the RISC offers a sense of belonging.
“The [US immigration and naturalisation service] say we’re citizens of Cambodia now, but the people here don’t treat us like that; they treat us like any foreigner who comes to this country,” he said. “I come here sometimes because all the guys here I can relate to and talk to and they can help me out.”
A 26-year-old returnee who identified himself as Sam said he was deported to Cambodia about a year ago and also didn’t know anyone when he arrived.
“I was born in a refugee camp in Thailand,” he said. “I’d never even been to Cambodia. This is my first time.”
He said he had felt like an ordinary US citizen, and that deportation to Cambodia had come as a shock.
“I was living a normal, everyday US life. I went through the whole school system,” he said. “I feel like they threw me here to rot.”
9 comments:
I am wondering if the US law doing the same to those European people (white) committing the crime in the United States without a citizenship? Anyone out there know? True these guys have committed crime, but some how it doesn't seems right. Those kids were brought to the US not by choice rather by war that was created portially by the super power like the United States.
Two separated things here:
1) You commit crime in USA, you must be jailed in USA.
2) You commited crime in USA, you will not be accepted to live in USA.
You should listen to BAN-DAM-MDAY above before you commit crime, brother. That's too late.
Welcome to your new home. Less criminals from US but more to Cambodia, DAMN!
Should have shown them your tattoos so you wouldn't get deported.
Easy man wath I got are my tatoos!!!
Yes they are the scum!!!! they loot and terrorize the society in USA! But Cambodian American should forgive them and May Cambodia association help RISC in Phnom Penh! make afundraiser Dance for the bad boy rot and help them rot withn dignity!
It is an easy way out for the U.S not to take their responsibility. They are the products for the U.S. and to put them in a foreign land they have never been to is an irresponsible act on the part of the U.S government. They came to the U.S legitimately and mistakes do happen to all human beings but why are they being treated very differently? and their no second chance for those who had commit crimes before the law was enacted. This is so unjust of the country who take pride in their justice system. Is it Cambodia responsibility to take care of these people? It does not make sense at all... there is no logic of any kinds.
Why is the American governments or I- Laws sent the felonies to Cambodia and some of them are not Cambodian born. Did they send the white European crimalmback to Europe??
To the one on the every top and the one before me not all the country being deport back except the country who sign the agreement with u.s . Cambodia one of them to sign that agreement take all Khmer bad boy or girl back. Want to blame? Asking Cambodia goverment why they do that. Anwer because $$$$$$$$$$$.
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