Democratic Voice of Vietnam

A family of Montagnard asylum seekers, including two young children and a 9-month-old baby, has been deported to Vietnam, where the father was reportedly beaten by authorities for attempting to escape.

The fate of the five Christian asylum seekers had been unknown since their arrest in Ratanakkiri province’s O’Yadav district on Sunday, with officials there refusing to reveal any information about the group’s whereabouts.

But Moeng Sineath, spokesman for Ratanakkiri Provincial Hall, confirmed for the first time yesterday that the group had been deported.

He denied, however, that they were Montagnards.

“They are Vietnamese people who illegally crossed the border into Cambodia to clear land for farming. Therefore, our authorities arrested them and deported them back to Vietnam,” he said.

Villagers in the area who had met with the family, and Chhay Thy, provincial coordinator for local rights group Adhoc, maintained yesterday that the deportees were ethnic Jarai Montagnards who had fled persecution.

Thy condemned the deportations and said that the family had sought asylum through Cambodia “because they know that the UN is present here … and that Cambodia has signed the Refugee Convention”.

He said the group’s forced return was a “violation of the rights of refugees”.