More Montagnard asylum seekers arrived in Ratanakkiri province last week, two of whom were immediately deported, just days after 13 others were given safe passage to claim asylum from religious persecution, villagers and activists said yesterday.
Chhay Thy, provincial coordinator for local rights group Adhoc, said seven ethnic Jarai Montagnards – indigenous people from Vietnam’s Central Highlands – illegally crossed into the province’s O’Yadav district on Friday.
According to Thy, two of the Montagnards were detained by police before being sent back across the border into the hands of Vietnamese authorities, while the other five remained hidden yesterday in the province’s Yatong commune, dodging deportation.
“The refugees are hiding in the forest and today some 50 police officers in seven vehicles are surrounding the area to arrest them, but they are still safe,” Thy said yesterday afternoon.
A post on the National Police website on Saturday confirmed that two ethnic Jarai males were apprehended at O’Yadav International Checkpoint on Friday.
The deportations came as a group of 13 Montagnards, who spent more than seven weeks in hiding, remained in Phnom Penh yesterday awaiting a response to their applications for asylum. Authorities denied for weeks that the group were Montagnards and blocked the United Nations from visiting them before eventually allowing them safe passage to the capital.
In Ratanakkiri yesterday, the authorities’ reaction seemed to mirror their initial response to the 13.
Local villager Muong Sorl, 33, said that he spoke to two of the Jarai asylum seekers on Saturday morning before they were chased away by border police.
“They crossed along a corridor without anything on them and entered the village.… We saw only two, but we do not know how many [there were in total]. When we asked, they said they were Jarai,” he explained. “We do not know if they were arrested or not.”
read more at : http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/new-montagnards-cross
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