Jahanshah Assadi, regional representative for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, arrived in Phnom Penh Monday evening for meetings with local officials and a planned trip to Mondolkiri province, where a Montagnard refugee camp has formed in recent days.
But UNHCR Officer-in-Charge John Farvolden said he did not know if Assadi will discuss the Montagnard issue with Deputy Prime Minister Sar Kheng, who has been the leading government official dealing with the influx of asylum seekers from Vietnam.
Assadi was not able to meet with Sar Kheng during a visit here last month, and a senior aide to Sar Kheng said Monday no meetings have been scheduled for this week, despite a request made Sunday by the UNHCR.
The deputy premier has recently been busy traveling overseas lobbying donor support for Cambodia’s upcoming commune elections, and said Sunday he had not seen a new report on the Montagnards.
The UNHCR will meet today with Phnom Penh diplomats to update them on the refugee situation. Assadi is scheduled to travel to Mondolkiri Wednesday. One source close to the situation said Monday Assadi will want to see the situation in the province firsthand and will work with the government to push beyond the present impasse.
Approximately 160 Montagnards remain camped about 5 km outside of Sen Monorom, where they arrived Friday. The day before, the ethnic minorities left their jungle hideouts in Pech Chreada district and walked to Bou Sra town before taking trucks provided by the UNHCR to the provincial capital.
Now more than a dozen blue tarpaulins are draped over wooden frames, forming makeshift tents that dot the site where the Montagnards are staying.
In the three days since their arrival, a basic but orderly refugee camp has materialized on the site once used to receive Cambodian refugees from the July 1997 fighting.
The asylum seekers, their number boosted recently by stragglers, have begun to settle into a familiar routine while they await the Cambodian government’s decision on their fate.
Already, at least 24 Montagnards fleeing unrest in Vietnam’s Central Highlands have been resettled in the US following interviews with the UNHCR in Phnom Penh.
A diplomatic official said Monday many embassies here have expressed a willingness to take other asylum seekers if they are first referred to them by the UNHCR. But other diplomats have also pointed out that asylum in Cambodia, rather than third-country resettlement, might be the best option.
However, after a weekend of alleged arrest attempts of some asylum seekers and the threat that local authorities may try to apply Cambodian immigration laws to repatriate the Montagnards, sources say the situation remains tenuous, despite UN protection.
Last week a family of seven Montagnards under UNHCR care disappeared—reportedly put on a truck and returned to Vietnam, according to local sources. UNHCR Associate Protection Officer David Welin said the UNHCR is continuing to investigate the family’s disappearance.
A provincial police officer informed UNHCR workers Monday that a two-day limit imposed on the agency’s access to the asylum seekers before immigration laws took effect would be extended at least through Wednesday.
The police presence around the camp has lessened, allowing UNHCR staff who previously spent much of their time dealing with local authorities to concentrate on the needs of the group, such as shelter and latrines.
Although rains abated Sunday evening and Monday, shallow trenches have been dug around the tents to serve as gutters for the almost daily downpours.
With the clearer weather and better shelter, morale among the asylum seekers appeared higher in the camp. But the question of what is next is not far from their minds.
Montagnards interviewed Monday asked when they would be moved to Phnom Penh. One Montagnard, when asked why he did not want to stay in Mondolkiri, gestured with his hands as though they were in handcuffs and pointed in the direction of the Vietnamese border.
The Vietnamese have pressured Cambodian authorities for the return of any ethnic hill tribes who have crossed the border, calling them illegal immigrants rather than political refugees.
At least one group of 19 Montagnards was deported in late March, two days before Prime Minister Hun Sen said the UNHCR would have access to any others found in Cambodia.
(Additional reporting by Lor Chandara)
