PHNOM PENH, Feb 16, 2011 (IPS) – Cambodia must ensure it offers a safe haven to asylum seekers, rights groups say, following the government’s closure this week of a United Nations-run refugee centre, home to dozens of Montagnards from Vietnam.
The 75 Montagnards, part of ethnic minority tribes from Vietnam’s Central Highlands, had been housed at the facility in Phnom Penh – some for up to six years. The government had ordered the centre shut late last year, saying that the Montagnards would either need to be resettled or forcibly returned to Vietnam.
The government gave the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) until this week to find new homes for the asylum seekers.
The UNHCR said 55 of the Montagnards had been resettled in Canada or the United States by this week’s deadline. A further ten are awaiting emigration, while the remaining ten were judged not to meet refugee criteria and are to be returned to Vietnam.
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