In its latest missive to Cambodia, Human Rights Watch lambasted the government Monday for its deportation of Vietnamese nationals who have snuck across the border in a bid for asylum.
9 February 2015
Country has returned 20 Muslim Uighur to China, while their asylum application was still being processed.
In its latest missive to Cambodia, Human Rights Watch lambasted the government Monday for its deportation of Vietnamese nationals who have snuck across the border in a bid for asylum.
Brad Adams, the organization’s Asia director, accused the government in a statement of “once again” using abusive tricks to evade legal responsibility to make sure asylum seekers enjoy their right to a fair and impartial assessment of their refugee claims.
“The government is putting these people’s lives and well-being at risk by forcing back those it arrests, and putting those who are forced into hiding at risk of starvation, disease, and exposure,” he added.
A raft of Vietnamese Montagnards have quietly crossed into Cambodia since late last year, where many have gone into hiding in jungles in a bid to escape what they say is mistreatment by the Vietnamese authorities.
The migrants are a predominantly Christian people who hail from the Central Highlands of Vietnam, and where many of their churches have been burned down. But in early February, five of them were repatriated.
Cambodia has a demonstrably poor record with regard to refugees, most notably with the return to China – at gunpoint – of 20 Muslim Uighur whose applications for asylum were still being processed.
The deportation in 2009 preceded a billion-dollar military aid package from China, one of Cambodia’s biggest benefactors.
It has also been widely criticized as a destination for Australia’s refugees, who are supposed to be sent from the South Pacific outpost of Nauru following a deal struck last year that included an aid package worth about $35 million.
The deal was blasted at the time by Unicef Australia, Save the Children and Amnesty International as “inappropriate, immoral and likely illegal.”
HRW has called upon the donor community in Cambodia to step up and publicly condemn the repatriation of the Montagnards, and says Cambodia must abide by its international obligations to consider bids for asylum properly and fairly.
Sixteen of the Montagnards who crossed over have been tracked down by a United Nations team and are having their applications assessed in Phnom Penh.
9 February 2015