Nineteen Montagnard refugees departed Phnom Penh last Tuesday for long-awaited resettlement in the US, Mohammad Al-Nassery, program officer at the International Organization of Migration, said on Monday.
The refugees are among the last of some 906 Montagnards who were offered resettlement in the US after they fled to Cambodia following a government crackdown in Vietnam’s Central Highlands early last year.
About 122 Montagnards are still in Phnom Penh awaiting the results of resettlement applications by the US Immigration and Naturalization Services in Bangkok, Al-Nassery said.
“We don’t know if [the departure] is this month or next month,” Al-Nassery said. “It had always been expected that some of the refugees will take some time in finalizing their papers.”
To stave off boredom, the IOM was providing educational activities for the remaining refugees, Al-Nassery said.
Montagnard supporters in the US said last month they suspect delays in resettling the refugees stemmed from long-standing animosity between Montagnard support groups in the US.
The supporters allege that accusations have been made claiming some of the remaining Montagnards are Vietnamese government spies, a charge that has led to intense INS scrutiny of the last refugees.
A US Embassy official blamed the delays on a back-log of applications worldwide.
Reports of Montagnards entering Cambodia ended abruptly earlier this year after Phnom Penh ordered its borders closed to asylum seekers.
Hanoi pressured Phnom Penh to reject Washington’s Montagnard resettlement plan; analysts said the border closing was to placate Cambodia’s larger neighbor.
The Associated Press reported on Friday that scores of Montagnards were arrested in the Central Highlands ahead of what a Vietnamese official said were planned protests on Sept 2—Vietnam’s National Day.
The Montagnard protests did not take place, the official told AP.
