The Interior Ministry’s refugee department on Tuesday began questioning 13 Montagnard asylum seekers who arrived in Phnom Penh on Sunday, according to the National Police website, which also posted a photo showing the faces of five of the men.
Refugee department director Kerm Sarin said his officials will question the group of 12 men and one woman and pass on the interviews to the Interior Ministry, which will decide whether to grant them refugee status or send them back to Vietnam, according to the website.
“The questioning and collection of evidence is to find whether those Vietnamese people have sufficient conditions to be considered refugees or asylum seekers,” the website quotes Mr. Sarin as saying.
The Montagnards fled Vietnam over the past two months for Ratanakkiri province, where they hid from authorities for weeks before being handed over to the U.N. and brought to Phnom Penh.
The 13 say they are fleeing religious and political persecution in Vietnam.
Contacted Tuesday, Mr. Sarin declined to comment, citing the sensitivity of the case.
Vivian Tan, the regional press officer for the U.N.’s Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees, referred questions about the status of the Montagnards’ applications to the refugee department.
However, she said by email that the U.N. hopes all parties involved with the case “will respect the privacy and confidentiality of the group to avoid exposing them further.”
“This includes not showing their faces, publicizing their names or taking other actions which may affect their applications,” she said.
(Additional reporting by Chris Mueller)
