Six Montagnards Seek Refugee Status in Cambodian Capital
RFA
– 07/20/2015
Six
ethnic Montagnard Christians who fled Vietnam and illegally entered Cambodia to
seek refugee status have arrived safely in the capital Phnom Penh, an official
from a local human rights group said Monday.
Chhay Thi, a provincial coordinator for Adhoc, said the group of two women and
four men fled Gia Lai province in Vietnam’s Central Highlands on July 16 and
arrived in O’Yadaw district in northeastern Cambodia’s remote Ratanakiri
province on July 18.
The members of the group told him that they had left Vietnam because of lack of
freedom and human rights persecution, he said.
“They told us that they faced difficulties living in their hometowns,” Chhay Thi
told RFA’s Khmer Service. “The Vietnamese authorities persecuted them by denying
them religious freedom and prevented them from using the Internet or social
media to communicate with their families abroad. These are the reasons they left
their hometowns to seek refugee status.”
However, he said, it was unclear whether the United Nations had taken the
Montagnards to its refugee center yet. RFA could not reach the U.N.’s refugee
agency (UNHRC) in Phnom Penh for comment.
Chhay Thi said the Montagnards have stopped taking refuge in Ratanakiri province
for lack of food, shelter and security and because three dozen other Montagnards
had been caught and deported back to Vietnam earlier this year.
Most of the nearly 200 Montagnards who have entered Cambodia illegally from
Vietnam’s Central Highlands since last year have claimed that they were fleeing
political and religious persecution in their home country.
Almost all of them have hidden in the forests of Ratanakiri province and
depended on local villagers to help them survive and reach Phnom Penh, some 500
kilometers (311 miles) away.
But since February, the Montagnards have figured out how to get to the capital
by themselves, so they no longer are hiding out in Ratanakiri province for
several weeks as they previously did, Chhay Thi said.
Reported by Ratha Visal for RFA’s Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun.
Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.