UN human rights envoy Peter Leuprecht expressed concern Friday over the government’s policy of deporting Montagnard asylum seekers from Vietnam—a policy outlined earlier this month by Foreign Minister Hor Namhong.
“[I]t is worrying that the Foreign Minister recently stated that the Government would deport Montagnards, whom he has labeled ‘illegal immigrants,’ without providing for an asylum process within Cambodia or allowing the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees the opportunity to assess the claims,” Leuprecht said in a statement.
Last week, Canadian, British, German and US diplomats urged the government to stop deporting Montagnards, who have fled to Cambodia from Vietnam’s Central Highlands, and honor their asylum claims to comply with the 1951 UN Convention on Refugees, to which Cambodia is a signatory.
Om Yentieng, human rights adviser to Prime Minister Hun Sen, said Sunday the government will not change its policy.
“It is normal that illegal immigrants are deported,” he said.
Opposition lawmaker Son Chhay said Sunday the UN needs to send messages through Secretary-General Kofi Annan, a more powerful voice, to change the government’s stance.
“I don’t think Leuprecht’s approach—just sending a statement now and then—is strong enough,” he said. He also urged the UN or other countries to set up an independent delegation to investigate alleged human rights abuses against Montagnards in Vietnam and Cambodia.
His pleas were echoed by a briefing paper released Friday by Human Rights Watch, a US-based rights agency. The report, titled “Vietnam: Independent Investigation of Easter Week Atrocities Needed Now,” compiled eyewitness reports of April 10 and 11, when as many as 30,000 Montagnards in Vietnam’s Central Highlands held demonstrations, demanding the return of their ancestral lands and religious freedom.
(Additional reporting by Kim Chan)
