A family of four Montagnard asylum-seekers detained by police at a Phnom Penh guest house for several nights without the UN refugee agency being allowed to assess their asylum claims was returned to Vietnam, rights workers and the UN said Thursday.
New York-based Human Rights Watch identified the man as Ksor Choi, his wife as Kpa H’Seo and their daughters as H’Ravi and H’Riva, aged 3 and 9.
“We have no reason to believe this family would have voluntarily returned. We understand they were extremely frightened,” a Human Rights Watch official said by telephone.
The family comes from Ea H’leo district in Daklak province, where repression of Montagnard political activists and religious leaders by the Vietnamese authorities is particularly harsh, the Human Rights Watch official said.
In Vietnam, Ksor Choi was under surveillance from authorities and was reportedly detained, beaten and then released in Daklak province in November, the official said.
The government’s handling of the case “is a flagrant violation of
