UNHCR to
Access Condition of Montagnards Returning from Cambodia
Press Release
- U.N. News Center
July 29 2005
A United Nations refugee agency representative is scheduled to visit Viet Nam's
Central Highlands early next week to assess the condition of Montagnard
tribesmen who returned home after they fled to Cambodia following a Government
crackdown on protests against land confiscation and religious persecution last
year.
The UNHCR regional representative based in Thailand will visit the returnees,
including those who returned voluntarily earlier in the year under an agreement
offering them repatriation or a resettlement in a third country after Cambodia
said it would not allow them to remain there.
The representative will be accompanied by a national staff member who has
already made five trips to the region to monitor the well-being of the voluntary
returnees and found nothing to cause disquiet, UNHCR spokesperson Jennifer
Pagonis said during a press briefing in Geneva on Friday.
She said UNHCR is aware of concerns from some human rights groups and reports in
the media surrounding the voluntary return of the Montagnards, and the
circumstances of the deportation of 94 rejected Montagnard asylum seekers on 20
July from Phnom Penh.
The persons returned on 20 July all had their claims to refugee status properly
rejected after a thorough process of review which included a right of appeal.
From UNHCR's perspective they were not refugees, Ms. Pagonis said.
In a separate development, UNHCR and the Cambodian government are scheduled to
depart today on a joint mission to Ratanakiri province where a reported 34
Montagnards are said to be hiding in the jungle.
A total of 541 Montagnards are currently under UNHCR's care in Phnom Penh. Of
that total 487 are recognised refugees and 42 of them have refused to resettle.
Seventeen of the total have claims pending, 20 are rejected cases and 17
humanitarian cases. UNHCR said it understands that the U.S. has an interest in
the humanitarian and rejected cases.
Under the repatriation and resettlement accord signed in January 2005, Viet Nam
has given guarantees that the returnees will not be punished, discriminated
against or prosecuted. So far, 398 refugees were submitted for resettlement of
which 149 have departed - 118 gone to the U.S., 8 to Canada and 23 to Finland.
Forty-three people returned voluntarily to Viet Nam earlier this year.