ICC Note:

A group of 160 Christian refugees in Cambodia, known as the Montagnards, fear being forced to return to the area they fled. The minority group fled their homeland in the mountains of Vietnam citing persecution by the Vietnamese government. Some of them have been relocated to the Philippines and some have already been returned to Vietnam. For the remaining 160, the UNHCR says they must provide further evidence to justify their claims as victims of persecution. However, a Cambodian government official stated that they must leave or they will be forcibly returned to Vietnam within two weeks. Many of the Montagnards are Christians and have faced persecution by the Vietnamese government.  

10/24/2016 Cambodia (Christian Examiner) – A group of indigenous tribal Christians from Vietnam who fled persecution in the country’s Central Highlands are about to be sent back into the lion’s den, Radio Free Asia has reported.

The believers, part of several of the many hill tribes known as Montagnards (French for “mountain people”), left Vietnam last year under pressure from a government which supposedly guarantees religious liberty, but only allows it insofar as it supports the objectives of the state – which is Marxist atheism.

According to the report from RFA, the Cambodian government plans to deport “some” of the 160 Montagnards whose asylum claims have been processed and denied, with officials claiming they have failed to prove they are refugees.

Khieu Sopheak, a spokesman for Cambodia’s interior ministry, said it could take up to one month for each of the Montagnard Christians to be returned to Vietnam. First, they have the opportunity to appeal the Cambodian government’s decision.

“The results of the interviews I obtained yesterday show that many of them didn’t satisfy the requirements to be recognized as refugees,” Sopheak said. “Now they have to submit additional evidence to justify their claims of mistreatment or persecution. After that, we will decide whether or not to deport them.”

But another spokesman for Cambodia’s immigration agency, Kim Sarin, took a much harder line. He said the Montagnards have two weeks to return to Vietnam, or else they will be forcibly returned.

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