Cambodia to let 62 Vietnamese refugees stay longer

Dec 17, 2010

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Cambodia said Friday it will allow 62 Vietnamese refugees to stay in the country a few more weeks as a favor to the U.N. refugee agency but believes they no longer face any danger in Vietnam and can be sent back.

Cambodia previously gave the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees a New Year’s Day deadline to close a refugee compound in the Cambodian capital. But the country will now give the agency until Feb. 15 instead, Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said.

“Vietnam is speeding up its economic growth. There is no war and no bombs, therefore Vietnam should not have any refugees,” Hor Namhong told reporters. “For the refugees who have not been granted asylum, they must be sent back to Vietnam. They cannot stay in Cambodia.”

The Foreign Ministry notified the UNHCR this month it planned to shut the housing compound Jan. 1 and send the residents home. Cambodia wants to close the compound in Phnom Penh to deter more arrivals.

The UNHCR pleaded for a little more time to help resettle the refugees.

“We’ll do them a favor. Prime Minister Hun Sen decided to postpone the deadline,” the foreign minister said.

Thousands of hill tribe people known as Montagnards fled to Cambodia since 2001, when Vietnam cracked down on protests against land confiscation and religious restrictions.

The current group is the last batch of asylum-seekers from 1,812 Vietnamese hill tribe people taken in by the UNHCR since 2006. The agency has resettled 999, mostly in the United States, and sent 751 home.

Many Montagnards sided with the United States during the Vietnam War, attend Protestant churches not recognized in Vietnam and are generally distrusted by the communist government.

Thais Seeking Return of Three Nationals: Report

Thursday, 16 December 2010
Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer | Phnom Penh
Thailand is seeking the return of three nationals arrested in Cambodia and sentenced to 18 months in prison for illegal entry and unlawful possession of weapons earlier this year, the Bangkok Post reported Thursday.
However, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Cambodia has not yet received an official request.

The three suspects—Lan Sapsri, 53, Lim Puangpet, 39, and Sanong Wongcharoen, 36—all from Thailand’s Surin province, were arrested in August in Oddar Meanchey province.
They were sentenced to 18 months in prison and a $250 fine in Siem Reap provincial court last week.
The Post quoted Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva as saying this week his foreign minister was looking into the arrests and seeking a way to bring them back.

Cambodian Foreign Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong said no such request had come through diplomatic channels. However, he said, Cambodia was seeking the return of four of its own nationals.
Both sides have traditionally seen a number of cross-border arrests. In August 2009, they agreed to send respective nationals back across the border to serve out their time in home prisons.