A US delegation in Phnom Penh has begun screening Montagnard asylum-seekers from Vietnam’s restive Central Highlands to establish whether they are eligible for resettlement, US Embassy and UN officials said Tuesday.
The resettlement unit arrived Monday, within days of two former asylum-seekers who left their new homes in the US and—in a strange twist to the unfolding Montagnard story—were seeking passage back to Vietnam.
Thamrongsak Meechubot, officer-in-charge of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Cambodia, said that two Montagnard men who had been resettled in the US in 2002 arrived in Phnom Penh last week, aiming to return to the Central Highlands.
The steady stream of Montagnards that has poured into Cambodia since July was preceded by a wave of asylum-seekers in 2001, who, like the current refugees, claimed to be fleeing a government crackdown on protests for religious freedom and land rights. In 2002, about 900 of those Montagnards were processed for resettlement in the US.
Meechubot said the two men attempting to return to Vietnam were no longer under the jurisdiction of the UNHCR and that the agency was not in contact with them.
“They are not refugees because they do not fear persecution,” Meechubot said. “If they want to go back to Vietnam, we are not going to stop them.”
US Embassy spokeswoman Heide Bronke confirmed that two previously resettled Montagnards had arrived in Phnom Penh. She said she referred them to the UNHCR.
The Vietnamese Embassy could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.
Bronke said that a unit from the US Embassy in Bangkok was screening the 472 asylum-seekers currently under UN protection in Phnom Penh for resettlement in the US.
Meechubot said the US mission, which began Monday, was scheduled to run until Oct 28. He did not know how many Montagnards are being considered for resettlement in the US.
The UN officer added that four Montagnards had left earlier this month to join family members residing in Sweden, and that Canada had also expressed interest in accepting some of the refugees.
Meanwhile, more reports have surface of asylum-seekers pouring into the Northeastern provinces.
A human rights official in Mondolkiri province said Tuesday that another 60 Montagnards had arrived in the province and were hiding in the jungles along the Vietnam border.
UNHCR protection officer Chung Ravuth confirmed Tuesday that the office had been informed of the new group in Mondolkiri.
“We are checking this information,” he said. “When it is verified, we will ask for the government’s permission to go there.”
