Nine More Montagnards From Vietnam Cross Into Cambodia

 2015-02-11

A new group of nine Montagnards from Vietnam took refuge this week in the forests of northeastern Cambodia’s Ratanakiri province, adding to the number of those already hiding there from authorities for fear of being deported, a rights group and a local villager who is helping them said Wednesday.

The Montagnards—Christian indigenous people from Vietnam’s Central Highlands—were spotted on Feb. 10 after crossing the border from Vietnam’s Gia Lai province, said the villager, who spoke to RFA’s Khmer Service on condition of anonymity.

“They are seeking refugee status in Cambodia,” the villager said.

The group, including a woman, had asked local villagers for help in finding shelter and food and had requested that the U.N. be informed of their presence in the country, he added.

Dozens of Montagnards have fled to Cambodia in recent months, citing religious and political persecution in Vietnam, and Cambodian authorities have often sought to send those it finds back across the border.

Last week, Cambodian authorities deported a family of five Montagnards to Vietnam’s Central Highlands after they were discovered hiding in Ratanakiri.

Deportation threat

Speaking to RFA, Chhay Thy, provincial coordinator for the Cambodian rights group Adhoc, confirmed that the nine who arrived this week were hiding in Ratanakiri and said he had already informed the U.N. of their arrival.

The group, which is seeking asylum, is now at risk of forced removal from the country, though, he said.

“They have been moving through [border] areas where Vietnamese and Cambodian police are operating.”

“They have no better or safer place to hide, and they are at risk of being arrested and deported,” he said.

Provincial spokesman Moeung Sinath meanwhile told RFA he had no knowledge of the group’s arrival in Ratanakiri, saying, “I am waiting for reports from the police and immigration officers.”

No camps in Cambodia

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Minister of Interior Sar Kheng said that Cambodia will consider all petitions for asylum on a “case by case” basis, but will send refugees on to third countries and deport  applicants to their own countries if they are found not to have refugee status.

“We cannot establish refugee camps in this country,” he said.
Meanwhile, a U.N. spokeswoman confirmed that four Montagnards had arrived on Sunday in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh, where the U.N. is helping them prepare documents applying for asylum for submission to the Ministry of Interior.

Vietnam's Central Highlands are home to some 30 tribes of indigenous peoples, known collectively as Montagnards, or the Degar, who suffer extreme persecution, according to rights groups.

Early in the last decade, thousands in the region staged violent protests against religious controls and the confiscation of their ancestral lands, prompting a brutal crackdown by Vietnamese security forces that saw hundreds of Montagnards charged with national security crimes.

Representatives of the minority group have said they are only calling for indigenous land rights and basic human rights in Vietnam, despite attempts by Hanoi to link them to overseas separatist groups.1