Immigration

Seventeen families from Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district, who claim they have lived in the area for two decades and are Cambodian by birth, protested against district authorities on Wednesday for designating them as Vietnamese immigrants. The families, from Chak Angre Krom commune’s Tuol Roka village, ...

The number of foreigners issued with Cambodian work permits this year has more than doubled that of last year. The increase was driven by Chinese workers whose contribution alone could generate millions for the Kingdom’s economy each year. ...

The General Immigration Department said that the program to revoke official documents that were not properly issued, to mostly 70,000 ethnic Vietnamese, was about 70 per cent complete. Khun Sambo, deputy director general of the department, which is under the Ministry of Interior, said it ...

The government yesterday maintained it was opening a path to citizenship for roughly 70,000 ethnic Vietnamese people living in Cambodia, though many have lived here for generations, and advocates say a current drive to revoke “irregular” government documents is effectively rendering many stateless. ...

Interior Minister Sar Kheng yesterday called on the government to amend the law on nationalisation and immigration, while a report from the general department of identification revealed 1,518 foreigners were granted Cambodian nationality from 2014 to 2017. Presiding over the department’s annual meeting, Mr Kheng ...

The government’s crackdown on illegal immigrants has resulted in more than 2,300 being deported and barred permanently from the kingdom so far this year. ...

The Ministry of Interior is moving forward with a plan to revoke official documents from 70,000 individuals living in Cambodia, claiming they were “improperly” issued and mistakenly confer citizenship on “immigrants” – many of whom are ethnic Vietnamese born in Cambodia. ...

Authorities will open a new international border checkpoint in Battambang’s Sampov Lun district, connecting with Thailand’s Sa Kaeo province, early next month. ...

The Tax Department yesterday issued a letter asking the Immigration Department to prevent Deborah Krisher-Steele and Douglas Steele – both representatives of the Cambodia Daily – from leaving the country, a day after department head Kong Vibol said he would continue to pursue the tax ...

Refugee advocates have welcomed plans from the United Nations to relocate 36 Montagnard asylum seekers to a third country, but the Cambodian government yesterday remained silent as to why it has so far failed to cooperate. ...

The Syrian man arrived in Cambodia this week, according a report in the Phnom Penh Post newspaper which quoted the head of the Cambodian Government’s refugee department. ...

A refugee has reportedly arrived in Cambodia from Nauru under the Turnbull Government’s$55 million agreement. A Syrian man was said to be the seventh person to resettle to one of Asia’s poorest nations. Cambodian Interior Ministry’s Refugee Department head Tan Sovichea said there were two refugees ...

Five Cambodians expelled from the U.S. arrived in Phnom Penh on Wednesday, a U.S. Embassy spokesman said, as Cambodia continued to call for revisions to the 2002 agreement with the U.S. that allowed their deportation. ...

More than 3,500 foreigners committed immigration offenses last year and more than 800 were banned from returning to Cambodia, the Interior Ministry’s report for 2016 said yesterday. ...

Almost a year after the last arrival of a refugee under Cambodia’s controversial plan with Australia to resettle those it is holding on the island nation of Nauru, another three have volunteered to make the trip to Cambodia, an official said on Sunday. ...

Almost two years since the latest wave of Montagnard asylum seekers began crossing into Ratanakkiri province claiming to be fleeing persecution in Vietnam, an immigration official said on Wednesday that the 170 remaining in Phnom Penh had two weeks to return home or face forcible ...

Announcing that more than 160,000 immigrants are living in Cambodia without proper documentation, the Interior Ministry on Friday said it would give the majority of the group an opportunity to stay in the country, while the opposition pushed for a blanket deportation. ...

In the wake of startling deportation numbers released by the general department of immigration last week showing that more than 85 percent of those deported since 2014 were Vietnamese, the government in Hanoi has asked Cambodia to ensure that the rights of those being sent ...

Thirty-two Vietnamese nationals were arrested during raids by immigration police in Phnom Penh’s Toul Kork district yesterday morning, according to Interior Ministry spokesman Keo Vanthorn.   ...

Immigration officials say they will introduce a new visa category for foreign retirees as soon as Monday—the latest push in a campaign to encourage more expatriates to settle in Cambodia. ...

Up to 750,000 Vietnamese people are believed to be living in Cambodia, about 5 percent of the country’s population, but no one knows for sure. They are almost universally stateless. Few qualify for Cambodian citizenship. ...

The Ministry of Interior’s department of immigration temporarily arrested 31 foreign nationals, including one Frenchman, on suspicion of staying in the Kingdom illegally in raids of two businesses in the capital yesterday. ...

Two ethnic minority rights groups have filed a letter to the Interior Ministry urging it to push commune and provincial officials to create identification cards for Khmer Krom citizens, many of whom have been denied the service. ...

About 100 Vietnamese nationals allegedly living illegally in Phnom Penh’s Chbar Ampov district were arrested by Interior Ministry officials on Friday. The 93 Vietnamese, including 34 women, had been living in Nirot commune when general department of immigration police raided their residences. All are now in ...