Fifteen Montagnards arrived Sunday and Monday at Mondolkiri province’s camp for hill tribe asylum seekers, bringing the number of men, women and children in the small tent village to 192 and the total number of Montagnards in Cambodia under UN protection to just under 250.
The latest arrivals—all single men—came primarily from Vietnam’s Dak Lak province, according to sources at the camp. They appear healthy and are waiting to be interviewed by staff from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, who will try to determine why they left Vietnam’s Central Highlands. Those already in Mondolkiri claim to have fled unrest in the Central Highlands and a subsequent crackdown by Vietnamese authorities. Many said the Hanoi government suppressed their mostly Christian religious beliefs. Others say travel bans blocked them from farming.
Since the Vietnamese government quelled protests in the Central Highlands earlier this year, dozens of Montagnards have trickled into Cambodia. A second group of approximately 50 hill tribe asylum seekers is being housed in the Ratanakkiri province capital of Banlung.
Earlier, whole families were plucked from jungle hiding places by the UNHCR, but arrivals in recent weeks appear to all be single young men who traveled on foot to Cambodia.
Already, at least 24 Montagnards have been resettled in the US, though both diplomats and UNHCR officials say voluntary repatriation is the eventual goal for the Montagnards remaining in Cambodia.
Despite claims of continued repression in the Central Highlands, restrictions have reportedly been eased, according to both recent travelers and Chu Dong Loc, the Vietnamese Embassy’s press attaché in Phnom Penh. “The situation is normal,” Chu Dong Loc said Tuesday.