Vietnam/Cambodia/Thailand: Montagnard refugees now aiming for Thailand

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South East Asia | 06 May 2017

Radio Free Asia reported on 3 April 2017 that, since March 2017, 50 Vietnamese Montagnard refugees have fled from Cambodia to Thailand to join over 200 others there seeking political asylum. Virtually all Montagnard refugees are Christian and have been threatened with repatriation to Vietnam by the Cambodian authorities. Cambodia will be hosting a meeting of the World Economic Forum in May as UCA News reported on 25 April 2017. However, it is very unlikely that Human Rights topics or the situation of the Christian asylum seekers will be discussed there. Thomas Muller, persecution analyst at World Watch Research, comments: "Montagnard refugees in Thailand live in difficult circumstances and can barely make a living. Regardless of their registration with the UNHCR, they have no rights there, but refugees claim that the hardships they face in Vietnam (such as being monitored, harassed, detained and beaten up by police or by hired local thugs) are far worse. This only goes to highlight the seriousness of persecution in Central Vietnam, a region which the authorities have under tight control,‚ making international monitoring virtually impossible.