In the morning of July 20, Cambodian troops and police officers equipped with electric batons entered Camp 1 of UNHCR in Phnom Pen to confront unarmed and defenseless Montagnard asylum seekers to forcibly deport them to Vietnam . The troops violently beat and knocking unconscious some of the Montagnard asylum seekers in order to forcibly put them on buses and drive them in the hands of the Vietnamese authorities where they will face an even greater danger for their life.

According to eyewitness testimonies, whose details MFI will disclose in an upcoming detailed report, the asylum seekers refused to follow the Cambodian authorities orders for fear of being deported without any guarantee for their safety and decided to lay on the ground to pray and non violently resist the forced deportation. One Montagnard woman who was beaten by the police and then deported was able to get in contact with the Montagnard Foundation and said that many of the refugees had been beaten unconscious by the police in order to put them on a bus and drive them away.


The fact that the UNHCR has allowed this to happen is in line with other shameful decisions taken by the Cambodian UNHCR office over the last three years as regards the case of Montagnard refugees. In January 2005, the UNHCR in Cambodia agreed to sign a Memorandum of Understanding that, contrary to the practices of this UN body allows the repatriation of asylum seekers and refugees, without any assurances that the recipient country will allow serious and independent monitoring of the respect of their fundamental human rights as prescribed by the UN Refugee Convention.

Today, the Cambodian office of UNHCR has been complicit of the violence and crimes committed on the Montagnard asylum seekers at Camp 1 in Phnom Pen by the Cambodian authorities. Cambodia is a party to the Statute of the International Criminal Court and episodes of forced deportation carried out on Cambodian soil such as this should thoroughly be investigated to verify the responsibility of Cambodian and Vietnamese officials.


Cambodia and Vietnam continue to receive of huge development aid by democratic countries and international institutions despite their criminal behavior. The United States and EU countries had been alerted of the decision of the Cambodian Government to deport the Montagnard asylum seekers to Vietnam , but no adequate efforts have been made to denounce such criminal behavior that put at risk the life of more than 100 Montagnard people. MFI has not heard any democratic Government to denounce this clear violation of human rights.

After 4 years of refusals by Vietnam to open the central highlands of Vietnam it is time the US and the EU really act to obtain that UN agencies and, most importantly, independent international NGOs, have permanent and independent access to the region. After such deportation no representative of a democratic country could anymore claim that Vietnam is making progress in the protection of human rights. Doing so would mean being complicit with the genocide policies applied by Hanoi towards the Montagnard people over the last 30years.

No more excuses, it is time to act to protect the Montagnard people.