The last batch of Montagnard asylum seekers was airlifted from Ratanakkiri province to Phnom Penh Tuesday morning, marking the successful completion of the operation to transport over 900 refugees from Ratanakkiri and Mondolkiri provinces to the capital.
The Montagnards, who began fleeing Vietnam 15 months ago because of alleged government persecution, are now staying at an unused garment factory in Phnom Penh. They are waiting for US Immigration and Naturalization officials to determine their refugee status and eligibility to be resettled in the US, a US Embassy official said.
An official from the Ministry of Interior Tuesday confirmed the asylum seekers from both UN refugee camps reached Phnom Penh safely, and that authorities have now closed both UN camps.
The Interior Ministry official, who declined to be identified, confirmed earlier reports that Mondolkiri provincial authorities burned down the UN camp in that province on Monday just one hour after the refugees left.
“The authorities burned down the camp because if they didn’t, people might move back to the camp and a fire could have been started,” the official said Tuesday.
Nikola Mihajlovic, the head of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees office, could not be reached for comment Tuesday regarding the closing of the UN camps by Cambodian officials.
While it was still unclear Tuesday who ordered the torching of the Mondolkiri camp, the Ministry of Interior did not instruct provincial officials to participate in the burning, the official said.
“We found out about the fire after it broke out,” the official said.
Police will not burn down the Ratanakkiri camp. They will allow villagers in the surrounding area to dismantle the houses and take material home, the official said.
Even though Cambodia is a signatory to the 1951 Convention on Refugees, which states that capturing or deporting asylum seekers before their refugee status is determined is a violation of the treaty, the Interior Ministry official said any future asylum seekers would be turned away at the Vietnamese border.
“If they come, we will send them back,” the official said.
A US official said his country hopes the government will consider the 1951 treaty before turning asylum seekers away.
“We recognize how difficult this situation has been for the Cambodian government, but we would like to see the government offer ‘first asylum’ [to asylum seekers] under the 1951 convention on refugees, of which Cambodia is a signatory,” the US official said Tuesday.
First asylum refers to the first country asylum seekers go to before they are permanently resettled in a third country.
There are several INS agents from the US Embassy in Bangkok now in Phnom Penh working to determine the refugee status of the Montagnards, and more will come soon, the US official said.
No time frame has been given yet for when the refugee checks will be completed and when the Montagnards will be resettled in the US. “[But] we would like the process to move as quickly as possible—no one is dragging their feet,” the official said.
The Associated Press reported that 33 senior Vietnamese senior provincial officials were sent Monday to strengthen village governments in four districts in the Central Highlands, the region from which the Montagnards fled.
The officials “will engage in mobilizing the masses, helping with social and economic development and enhancing security and defense in these villages where governments are weak,” a Vietnamese government official said on condition of anonymity.
The officials will stay for two years. They were given $65 each and will receive a $26 monthly allowance in addition to their regular salaries.
The official said 249 provincial and district government officials were assigned to village governments last year for 4 to 5 months following protests by ethnic minority groups.
