ICC Note: Twenty-nine Montagnard asylees beg the UN to interfere as they face danger of being deported back to Vietnam where they face persecution. Montagnards, a Christian ethnic minority from Vietnam, have been informed that Cambodian government has rejected their refugee application and that they would be deported in 10 days. UNHCR is trying to appeal the decision by explaining that even though Cambodian law requires them to leave Cambodia, the law does not require them to return to their country of origin.
09/12/2017 Cambodia (Phnom Penh Post) – Twenty-nine Montagnards with compelling refugee claims are set to be deported to Vietnam in just over 10 days, according to the refugee department, leaving them in fear of imprisonment and persecution.
The 29 – including seven children – are among 36 Montagnards that the UN’s refugee body, the UNHCR, is seeking to relocate to a safe third country based on the seriousness of their claims.
On Thursday the 29 Montagnards – a mostly Christian ethnic minority from Vietnam’s Central Highlands – were informed that their applications had been rejected and they would be deported in 15 days, around September 22, said asylum seeker Y Rin Kpa, 47.
“I am very scared and very worried,” he said, adding that he feared reprisals from Vietnamese authorities. “They would not stop; they would continue to punish me.”
Kpa said he spent nearly 10 years in a Vietnamese prison, from 2001 to 2010, after taking part in a religious freedom demonstration.
After six months in Daklak prison – where he said he was brutally beaten by prison guards until his head bled – he was given a secret one-day trial before spending a decade behind bars.
“They did not treat us fairly . . . They took our lands, they do not allow us to worship, they really push us down and oppress us,” he said.
He arrived in Cambodia with his wife on June 7, 2015, and has been awaiting a verdict on his refugee status ever since.
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