Ka-set
By Duong Sokha
27-03-2009
In the near future, the procedure which consists of granting the status of refugee to foreigners in Cambodia will not come under the competence of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as it was the case until now, but under that of the Royal government. As a signatory state of the 1951 Geneva Convention relating to refugees, the Cambodian authorities have a duty to grant political asylum on the Cambodian territory to foreigners who seek it, under certain conditions. Since 1992, the Supreme National Council (SNC) of Cambodia, then presided over by Norodom Sihanouk, delegated that mission to the HCR. The latter “temporarily” took the responsibility of welcoming refugees (Vietnamese, Chinese but also nationals from African states...) on the Cambodian territory. In order to comply with the convention it signed, the Cambodian government has just finished the first draft of a sub-decree, in collaboration with the Phnom Penh office of the HCR. The text, however, will not apply to Vietnamese Montagnards who are now placed under the protection of the HCR in a camp in the Cambodian capital.
A governmental sub-decree issued to conform to the Refugee Convention
Late 2008, the head of the Cambodian government and the High Commissioner for Refugees (HCR), based in Geneva, agreed on the elaboration of the draft sub-decree to determine the procedures related to the granting of the status of refugees in Cambodia. The decision allows the Cambodian state to conform to the 1951 Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees , which it signed in September 1992, as detailed by the national Cambodian police deputy general commissioner Sok Phal, in charge of the dossier.
The Convention, elaborated in the aftermath of World War II, defines the terms according to which a signatory state must grant the status of refugee to people who seek it, as well as the rights and duties of those persons on its territory.
According to the Cambodian high-ranking official, the Ministry of Interior of the Kingdom of Cambodia entrusted the department of immigration of the national police general commissariat with the drafting of the sub-decree, the first draft of which was completed on March 17th with the participation of the Phnom Penh office of the HCR. “The important points which must be addressed in this draft sub-decree aim at harmonising [the welcoming procedures for foreigners in Cambodia] with the 1951 Refugee Convention. For instance, asylum seekers have a right to ask for some help in order to know the legal aspects in force in Cambodia, they are entitled to ask for a translation as well as means of communication with the Cambodian authorities with a view to seek the status of refugee. The implementation of all those rights are therefore stipulated in the text”, Sok Phal details, adding that the first draft will soon be submitted to the national police general commissariat and the Ministry of Interior for examination, before being sent to the Council of Ministers for adoption.
HCR satisfied with new dispositions
The Phnom Penh office of the HCR, Lieutenant General Sok Phal says, contributed to the elaboration of the draft of the sub-decree and added comments, drawn from the experience of the office, to clearly define terms and establish acceptable procedures, as much for the Cambodian side as for the international side. The representative of the HCR in Phnom Penh, Thamrongsak Meechubot, who took part in the examining of the text with the Cambodian authorities, logically welcomed the draft of the sub-decree, through which Cambodia intends to respect its commitments and duties, as defined in the 1951 Convention. “We are happy about the content of the draft and did not see any problem in it, the Thai representative for the UN organisation in Phnom Penh explains, eagerly waiting for the adoption and enforcement of the text.
Nick Henderson, a jurist working for the NGO Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), an international organisation which provides refugees with legal help and has been in Cambodia for fifteen years, was aware of the draft sub-decree, but did not have a chance to discover the content of it. “We requested a copy of the completed sub-decree from the government, with a view to provide the Cambodian authorities and the HCR with constructive recommendations, if necessary, and to establish the future law, the best possible one. We are hoping that the sub-decree will offer protection and real rights to refugees in Cambodia”, the Irish expert commented.
Decision-making power in the hands of the government
As it is generally the case in other countries, the final decision to grant asylum to refugees will come, if this text is adopted, under the competence of the Cambodian government and not that of the HCR. Conditions for the granting of the status of refugee are clearly defined in the 1951 Convention and the Cambodian state will therefore comply with it, as stated by Sok Phal. “This sub-decree is simply the implementation of the right of Cambodia as a sovereign country, to autonomous decision making. The only persons entitled to the status of refugee are those who suffer from persecutions in their own country, such as victims of political pressure; but victims of economic problems are not entitled to that status”, the deputy general commissioner, who is also a personal adviser to Cambodian prime Minister Hun Sen.
According to the application procedure for refugee status stipulated in the draft sub-decree, foreigners who enter Cambodia with a valid visa will be allowed to contact the department of immigration of the national police general commissariat, where they will obtain an application form they will be asked to fill in. “Once the sub-decree is in force, the government will ask the Ministry of Interior to issue this form, which [asylum seekers] will fill in like they would fill in a wedding form, without going via the HCR. After the dossier is submitted, we will send a copy of it to the HCR, with the applicant’s biography and wishes, because the HCR has expertise [on those questions] and provides financial aid for the settlement [of refugees]”, Sok Phal details.
Which refugees?
The policeman adds that the text will not apply to Khmer people from Kampuchea Krom, a region which is now located on the Vietnamese territory and where most of the population speaks Khmer. They are fully considered as Khmer ever since former King Norodom Sihanouk signed a Royal decree. “Khmer people from Kampuchea Krom who come to settle in Cambodia do not need to apply for the status of refugee”, he says, “but they have a duty to conform to laws, as Cambodians, particularly by having a family record book”.
This was a subtle allusion to criticism which the Vietnamese and Cambodian governments are faced with, on the part of organisations for the defence of Human rights. A Human Rights Watch report released in 2009 denounced the useless obstacles which Khmer Krom encounter when they try to legalise their status in Cambodia, and the violence suffered by those who express their criticism of the Vietnamese authorities. The report particularly pointed out repression carried out during demonstrations against Khmer Krom monks who denounced the infringement of their Human rights in Vietnam, and the arrest of a Khmer Krom activist monk in June 2007, followed by his deportation to Vietnam where he was condemned to a year of imprisonment.
Vietnamese Montagnards not concerned
Still according to Sok Phal, the draft sub-decree will not apply to Vietnamese Montagnards – the name often given to local ethnic minorities living in the plateaus of central Vietnam - , now placed under the protection of the HCR in Phnom Penh, but whose fate will be determined by further discussions between the Cambodian authorities and the HCR.
In February 2001, several thousand members of local minorities in those mountainous regions of Vietnam, mostly Christians, launched a series of peaceful demonstrations claiming their independence and the return to their ancestral land and the freedom of religion. Thos demonstrations were violently suppressed by the Vietnamese government. It is from then on that these Vietnamese Montagnards started crossing the North-East border with Cambodia (Ratanakiri and Mondulkiri) to escape persecutions by the Vietnamese authorities. Some of them were finally repatriated by force after they were denied the status of refugee.
“Concerning Montagnards, we have a memorandum or understanding which was signed in [January] 2005 by Cambodia, Vietnam and the HCR in Hanoi. It is implemented in a very efficient way. This is why there is not a single divergence between Vietnam and the HCR”, the Lieutenant General says.
With this memorandum of understanding, Vietnam commits not to mistreat or discriminate repatriated Montagnards and allow HCR delegations to visit them in the Plateaus region, in central Vietnam, so their living conditions could still be followed-up after their repatriation, whereas before, Human rights observers, journalists or private investigators used to be denied access to that region as it was strictly controlled by the Vietnamese authorities.
Straight towards the United States
“The number of entries for Montagnards [in Cambodia] has being going down since mid-2008. We now know that the HCR has the possibility of going directly to Vietnam, which is a lot more open to them. [Montagnards] do not need to flee Cambodia but can directly be in touch with the HCR to go to the United States. It is better like this”, Sok Phal says. The personal adviser to prime Minister Hun Sen asserts that therefore, this is not a “sensitive” topic.
According to HCR representative in Phnom Penh Thamrongsak Meechubot, 148 Vietnamese Montagnards are still installed today in a HCR camp in Phnom Penh, and among them, most have obtained the status of refugee. Since 2001, more than a thousand Montagnards have gone to the United States.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The status of “refugee” clearly managed
According to the Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (1951), a refugee is classified as a person who “owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country (…)”
The full text of the 1951 Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees is available on the website of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
By Duong Sokha
27-03-2009
In the near future, the procedure which consists of granting the status of refugee to foreigners in Cambodia will not come under the competence of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as it was the case until now, but under that of the Royal government. As a signatory state of the 1951 Geneva Convention relating to refugees, the Cambodian authorities have a duty to grant political asylum on the Cambodian territory to foreigners who seek it, under certain conditions. Since 1992, the Supreme National Council (SNC) of Cambodia, then presided over by Norodom Sihanouk, delegated that mission to the HCR. The latter “temporarily” took the responsibility of welcoming refugees (Vietnamese, Chinese but also nationals from African states...) on the Cambodian territory. In order to comply with the convention it signed, the Cambodian government has just finished the first draft of a sub-decree, in collaboration with the Phnom Penh office of the HCR. The text, however, will not apply to Vietnamese Montagnards who are now placed under the protection of the HCR in a camp in the Cambodian capital.
A governmental sub-decree issued to conform to the Refugee Convention
Late 2008, the head of the Cambodian government and the High Commissioner for Refugees (HCR), based in Geneva, agreed on the elaboration of the draft sub-decree to determine the procedures related to the granting of the status of refugees in Cambodia. The decision allows the Cambodian state to conform to the 1951 Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees , which it signed in September 1992, as detailed by the national Cambodian police deputy general commissioner Sok Phal, in charge of the dossier.
The Convention, elaborated in the aftermath of World War II, defines the terms according to which a signatory state must grant the status of refugee to people who seek it, as well as the rights and duties of those persons on its territory.
According to the Cambodian high-ranking official, the Ministry of Interior of the Kingdom of Cambodia entrusted the department of immigration of the national police general commissariat with the drafting of the sub-decree, the first draft of which was completed on March 17th with the participation of the Phnom Penh office of the HCR. “The important points which must be addressed in this draft sub-decree aim at harmonising [the welcoming procedures for foreigners in Cambodia] with the 1951 Refugee Convention. For instance, asylum seekers have a right to ask for some help in order to know the legal aspects in force in Cambodia, they are entitled to ask for a translation as well as means of communication with the Cambodian authorities with a view to seek the status of refugee. The implementation of all those rights are therefore stipulated in the text”, Sok Phal details, adding that the first draft will soon be submitted to the national police general commissariat and the Ministry of Interior for examination, before being sent to the Council of Ministers for adoption.
HCR satisfied with new dispositions
The Phnom Penh office of the HCR, Lieutenant General Sok Phal says, contributed to the elaboration of the draft of the sub-decree and added comments, drawn from the experience of the office, to clearly define terms and establish acceptable procedures, as much for the Cambodian side as for the international side. The representative of the HCR in Phnom Penh, Thamrongsak Meechubot, who took part in the examining of the text with the Cambodian authorities, logically welcomed the draft of the sub-decree, through which Cambodia intends to respect its commitments and duties, as defined in the 1951 Convention. “We are happy about the content of the draft and did not see any problem in it, the Thai representative for the UN organisation in Phnom Penh explains, eagerly waiting for the adoption and enforcement of the text.
Nick Henderson, a jurist working for the NGO Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), an international organisation which provides refugees with legal help and has been in Cambodia for fifteen years, was aware of the draft sub-decree, but did not have a chance to discover the content of it. “We requested a copy of the completed sub-decree from the government, with a view to provide the Cambodian authorities and the HCR with constructive recommendations, if necessary, and to establish the future law, the best possible one. We are hoping that the sub-decree will offer protection and real rights to refugees in Cambodia”, the Irish expert commented.
Decision-making power in the hands of the government
As it is generally the case in other countries, the final decision to grant asylum to refugees will come, if this text is adopted, under the competence of the Cambodian government and not that of the HCR. Conditions for the granting of the status of refugee are clearly defined in the 1951 Convention and the Cambodian state will therefore comply with it, as stated by Sok Phal. “This sub-decree is simply the implementation of the right of Cambodia as a sovereign country, to autonomous decision making. The only persons entitled to the status of refugee are those who suffer from persecutions in their own country, such as victims of political pressure; but victims of economic problems are not entitled to that status”, the deputy general commissioner, who is also a personal adviser to Cambodian prime Minister Hun Sen.
According to the application procedure for refugee status stipulated in the draft sub-decree, foreigners who enter Cambodia with a valid visa will be allowed to contact the department of immigration of the national police general commissariat, where they will obtain an application form they will be asked to fill in. “Once the sub-decree is in force, the government will ask the Ministry of Interior to issue this form, which [asylum seekers] will fill in like they would fill in a wedding form, without going via the HCR. After the dossier is submitted, we will send a copy of it to the HCR, with the applicant’s biography and wishes, because the HCR has expertise [on those questions] and provides financial aid for the settlement [of refugees]”, Sok Phal details.
Which refugees?
The policeman adds that the text will not apply to Khmer people from Kampuchea Krom, a region which is now located on the Vietnamese territory and where most of the population speaks Khmer. They are fully considered as Khmer ever since former King Norodom Sihanouk signed a Royal decree. “Khmer people from Kampuchea Krom who come to settle in Cambodia do not need to apply for the status of refugee”, he says, “but they have a duty to conform to laws, as Cambodians, particularly by having a family record book”.
This was a subtle allusion to criticism which the Vietnamese and Cambodian governments are faced with, on the part of organisations for the defence of Human rights. A Human Rights Watch report released in 2009 denounced the useless obstacles which Khmer Krom encounter when they try to legalise their status in Cambodia, and the violence suffered by those who express their criticism of the Vietnamese authorities. The report particularly pointed out repression carried out during demonstrations against Khmer Krom monks who denounced the infringement of their Human rights in Vietnam, and the arrest of a Khmer Krom activist monk in June 2007, followed by his deportation to Vietnam where he was condemned to a year of imprisonment.
Vietnamese Montagnards not concerned
Still according to Sok Phal, the draft sub-decree will not apply to Vietnamese Montagnards – the name often given to local ethnic minorities living in the plateaus of central Vietnam - , now placed under the protection of the HCR in Phnom Penh, but whose fate will be determined by further discussions between the Cambodian authorities and the HCR.
In February 2001, several thousand members of local minorities in those mountainous regions of Vietnam, mostly Christians, launched a series of peaceful demonstrations claiming their independence and the return to their ancestral land and the freedom of religion. Thos demonstrations were violently suppressed by the Vietnamese government. It is from then on that these Vietnamese Montagnards started crossing the North-East border with Cambodia (Ratanakiri and Mondulkiri) to escape persecutions by the Vietnamese authorities. Some of them were finally repatriated by force after they were denied the status of refugee.
“Concerning Montagnards, we have a memorandum or understanding which was signed in [January] 2005 by Cambodia, Vietnam and the HCR in Hanoi. It is implemented in a very efficient way. This is why there is not a single divergence between Vietnam and the HCR”, the Lieutenant General says.
With this memorandum of understanding, Vietnam commits not to mistreat or discriminate repatriated Montagnards and allow HCR delegations to visit them in the Plateaus region, in central Vietnam, so their living conditions could still be followed-up after their repatriation, whereas before, Human rights observers, journalists or private investigators used to be denied access to that region as it was strictly controlled by the Vietnamese authorities.
Straight towards the United States
“The number of entries for Montagnards [in Cambodia] has being going down since mid-2008. We now know that the HCR has the possibility of going directly to Vietnam, which is a lot more open to them. [Montagnards] do not need to flee Cambodia but can directly be in touch with the HCR to go to the United States. It is better like this”, Sok Phal says. The personal adviser to prime Minister Hun Sen asserts that therefore, this is not a “sensitive” topic.
According to HCR representative in Phnom Penh Thamrongsak Meechubot, 148 Vietnamese Montagnards are still installed today in a HCR camp in Phnom Penh, and among them, most have obtained the status of refugee. Since 2001, more than a thousand Montagnards have gone to the United States.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The status of “refugee” clearly managed
According to the Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (1951), a refugee is classified as a person who “owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country (…)”
The full text of the 1951 Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees is available on the website of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
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