sen monorom district, Mondolkiri province – Midmorning chores at this small tent village were halted Monday when three more Montagnard asylum seekers arrived here after fleeing Vietnam’s Central Highlands five days ago.
This latest small group to arrive at what has become Cambodia’s only collection point for the influx of Montagnards escaping unrest in the Central Highlands brings the number of men, women and children camping on this hillside site to a little more than 165.
The three men say they left Vietnam’s Dak Lak province on foot last Thursday, when authorities there stopped them from farming outside their village, said Montagnard sources inside the camp. Shortly after the men’s arrival, there was an enthusiastic reunion between the three and friends already at the camp.
Religious rights abuses of the mainly Christian hill tribe members and violation of land rights have been the major complaints of Montagnards, who were settled here two weeks ago after hiding in remote jungle locations in the province.
The three newest arrivals all reported strict travel bans between villages in the Central Highlands, with authorities not only stopping traffic on local roads but posting guards around each hamlet to try to prevent communication between villagers.
Like other Montagnards here, the three men left family in the Central Highlands, camp sources said. The information they brought from Vietnam—the first such information heard by many Montagnards here since their flight—caused concern among some asylum seekers.
“Right now, I’m afraid for my family in Vietnam,” one Motagnard said. “There is no information, maybe the police are watching my house, my mother and father.”
A Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokesman said Thursday that Vietnam and Cambodia must work together to solve the problem of Motagnards coming to Cambodia.
UNHCR staff, who are overseeing the camp, said the three men would be allowed to stay at the site, which remains under the watch of local authorities but has not been bothered during the last week.
Monday’s new arrivals, though, did bring prompt visits from district police officials, who drove briefly into the camp, looked around and left.
Sightseers—often local residents or apparently bored police officers—have become more common at the camp, as have local food vendors.
The almost daily visit of an ice cream seller is a welcome break in the increasing monotony of camp life and on Monday, several local hill tribe women with baskets full of fruits and vegetables arrived, doing brisk business in bananas with Montagnards here.
But despite this and the relief offered by a recently erected volleyball net, boredom has replaced the fear of immediate deportation as a chief concern among camp inhabitants.
“There is nothing to do,” one man complained, as the camp cycled through its now daily routine of cooking, prayers, laundry and sitting around.
Still the mood here remains upbeat despite reports of continued deportations from Mondolkiri and Ratanakkiri provinces. And families here appear to be settling in for a lengthy stay. On Monday, food and new cooking pots were rationed out. Men busied themselves shoring up their tent shelters with the approach of a late afternoon storm amid the shouts of an impromptu football game begun on the path leading into the camp.
