Police deported 31 Vietnamese nationals on Friday as part of a nationwide census which was started last year to identify foreigners living in the country illegally, immigration officials said.
“This morning, we deported 31 Vietnamese people including two women through the Bavet checkpoint” in Svay Rieng province, said Uk Heisela, chief of investigations at the Interior Ministry’s general immigration department.
Major General Heisela said that 28 members of the group, who had been living in Cambodia without legal documentation, were arrested on May 8 in Oddar Meanchey province’s Anlong Veng district, while the other three were detained on May 11 in Phnom Penh.
According to Maj. Gen. Heisela, 1,873 foreigners from 36 countries—including more than 1,500 Vietnamese and 200 Chinese—have been deported since the census started in August 2014.
The department has also collected about 3 billion riel (about $750,000) in fines since the census began, he added.
