Cambodia to close refugee center, scrap UN agreement

Wed, 22 Dec 2010

Phnom Penh - Cambodia says it plans to cancel an agreement with the United Nations on the processing of Vietnamese refugees, stoking fears about its willingness to accept asylum seekers.

The government announced plans last week to close a center run by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees for Vietnamese Montagnards, a highland minority group.

Currently, 76 people are housed in the camp, 62 of whom have been granted refugee status, allowing them to be resettled in a third country.

Thousands of predominantly Christian Montagnards have come to Cambodia since 2001, fleeing alleged political and religious persecution by Vietnamese authorities.

An agreement between the UN, Cambodia and Vietnam has governed the processing of Montagnard refugees since 2005, stipulating that they must be held at the UN center in Phnom Penh temporarily before being transferred to a third country or voluntarily returning to Vietnam.

The pact will be annulled after the camp is closed in February, Koy Kuong, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman, said.

"When the center is closed, the MOU (memorandum of understanding) is finished," Koy Kuong said, adding that Cambodia would implement its own immigration procedures in future Montagnard cases.

Kitty McKinsey, a regional spokeswoman for UNHCR, said the UN was "discussing with the Cambodian government" how to process the cases of future Montagnard asylum seekers.

The UN says it is working to resettle the 62 registered Montagnard refugees at the center in Phnom Penh before the facility closes in February, and has called on the Cambodian government not to deport any of the others whose cases are pending.

Activists have raised concerns about the center's closure, saying it may signal that Cambodia places its relationships with allies such as Vietnam and China over human rights considerations. Last year, the government deported 20 Uighur Chinese refugees at the behest of Beijing and over the objections of the United States and others.

"Cambodia's decision to speed the closure of the UNHCR asylum center in Phnom Penh is rash and for those that could face deportation, puts their lives at risk," the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization said.

"It is crucial therefore that the United States press the Cambodia authorities to live up to their obligations as a party to the UN [Refugee] Convention."

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/359297,centre-scrap-un-agreement.html.