Ethnic minorities and indigenous people

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. But Moeng Sineath, spokesman for Ratanakkiri Provincial Hall, confirmed for the first time yesterday ...

Representatives of communities across the country who have had their lives upturned by development projects yesterday called on the government to rescind the economic land concessions at the centre of their disputes. ...

Government spokesman and four-star General Khieu Sopheak has threatened to sue an NGO worker over his “false allegations” about Montagnard asylum seekers. Sopheak said authorities had only arrested “illegal Vietnamese immigrants”, and called on Chhay Thy, provincial coordinator for local rights group Adhoc and the ...

About 100 villagers prevented a company from clearing part of its land concession in Ratanakkiri province’s Lumphat district on Saturday in the latest confrontation in a long-running dispute in the Lumphat Wildlife Sanctuary, according to a villager and a local official. ...

Eighteen more Montagnards arrived in Ratanakkiri yesterday morning, bringing the total number of the Christian asylum seekers in hiding in the northeastern province to 32, villagers and a local rights group said last night. ...

Ethnic Bunong communities in Mondulkiri’s Bousraa commune will soon hold protests that will call on French industrialist Vincent Bollore to honour promises his firm made during a meeting with them in Paris in October, a representative has said. His Bollore investment group is a shareholder in ...

Eighteen Montagnard asylum seekers crossed into Ratanakkiri province from Vietnam on Wednesday morning, according to a rights group and a local villager, the fourth such group to arrive in the country this month. Chhay Thy, the provincial coordinator for rights group Adhoc, said the 18 were ...

As 14 Montagnard asylum seekers continue to evade authorities in the forests of Ratanakkiri province, an official said Sunday that police deported seven “Vietnamese Jarai” from the northeastern province on Saturday. Ratanakkiri provincial police chief Nguon Koeun said border police arrested the seven on Saturday in ...

Hundreds of indigenous families from Ratanakkiri’s Andong Meas district have demanded the government cancel the economic land concession of a Vietnamese rubber company that they say is illegally prospecting for gold. About a dozen people representing 384 families handed a petition to CNRP lawmakers yesterday requesting ...

Two weeks after five Montagnard asylum seekers crossed into Ratanakkiri province from Vietnam, the U.N. said Sunday that reports of the arrival of nine more—including three children—added to the situation’s “urgency.” Two ethnic Jarai villagers living in Ratanakkiri said the nine Montagnards—an indigenous group from Vietnam’s ...

The governor of Ratanakkiri province is not cooperating with efforts by the U.N. to negotiate safe passage for five Montagnard asylum seekers who crossed the border from Vietnam nearly two weeks ago, a U.N. official said Thursday. Wan-Hea Lee, the country representative for the U.N.’s Office ...

Eight ethnic minority Jarai villagers in Ratanakkiri province have been told to sign an agreement pledging not to provide aid to Montagnard asylum seekers or face possible arrest, villagers have said. ...

Minority Kuoy and Phnong community members from Preah Vihear and Mondulkiri provinces are demanding that the government cancel economic land concessions granted to two Chinese companies and a Vietnamese firm for allegedly violating land laws. In a press conference yesterday in Phnom Penh, representatives from the ...

Montagnards hiding in Ratanakkiri province, speculation grew that more would arrive in the coming weeks. Sev Lyn, chief of Pak Nhai commune’s Lom village, said police were searching the area for 18 Jarai Montagnards — indigenous villagers from Vietnam’s Central Highlands — and were under orders ...

Remaining five hill tribe Montagnards emerged from northeast Cambodia’s jungle on Saturday night after hiding for more than seven weeks since illegally entering Cambodia from Vietnam, a senior human rights activist said Sunday. ...

Thirteen hill tribespeople known as  “Montagnards” have left their jungle hideout in Cambodia and will apply for asylum after crossing from Vietnam to flee persecution, it was announced Sunday. The minority group had for more than seven weeks sought refuge in the jungle in Cambodia’s northeastern ...

Thirteen ethnic Montagnards have emerged from the jungles of Cambodia, where they hid for more than seven weeks after entering the country from Vietnam to flee alleged persecution, the United Nations and local authorities said Saturday. Eight of the Montagnards–including one woman–left their jungle hiding ...

Provincial authorities in Ratanakkiri province on the Vietnam border have yet to allow a team of UN workers to actively seek out a group of Montagnards potentially seeking asylum. UN refugee workers met with provincial officials for more than an hour on Wednesday, but no permission ...

The U.N.’s efforts to locate a group of Montagnards hiding in Ratanakkiri province continued to be hindered Monday as the provincial governor was yet again unavailable to meet its delegation, four days after it traveled to the northeastern province. Despite the delegation’s expectation that it would ...

The Cambodian government will allow UN representatives to seek out a group of Montagnards reportedly in hiding in Ratanakkiri province. Interior Minister Sar Kheng gave the green light for UN offices of human rights and refugees to look into the case, where at least 13 Montagnards ...

A UN delegation met with Ratanakkiri province’s deputy police chief yesterday afternoon to discuss the fate of 13 Montagnard asylum seekers who have been hiding in the province in recent weeks. The provincial administration, however, has continued to call for the group’s deportation. Deputy police chief ...

Cambodian police said Wednesday they were scouring remote northeastern jungles for a group of Vietnamese Montagnards who crossed the border in an apparent attempt to seek asylum. Rights groups say 13 of the hill tribe people, including one woman, fled persecution in Vietnam late last month ...

Cambodian authorities are hunting more than a dozen ethnic minority hill people from Vietnam, drawing international criticism and raising further doubts about Australia’s controversial agreement to send refugees to Phnom Penh. Babar Baloch, a spokesman for the United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), warned ...

A team from the United Nations refugee agency traveled to northeast Cambodia Wednesday to meet with 13 ethnic Montagnards seeking asylum in the country after fleeing alleged persecution in Vietnam, according to an agency spokesperson and a member of a local rights group. United Nations High ...