Sanjay Gathia, JRS-AP Regional Information Advocacy Officer; JRS- Asia Pacific Issue 75, PO Box 49, Sanampao Post Office, Bangkok 10406, Thailand; 28/11/09
Bao (name changed) spoke softly. I had to lean forward and strain my ears to listen to him. He was the only one among the group who could understand English easily and spoke it with some fluency. He and ten other men and three women were a group of Montagnards from Vietnam who had arrived by way of Cambodia in Thailand to seek protection. They were caught by police in the border area and then sent to the Bangkok IDC to be processed as cases of illegal entry into Thailand. They were now held in detention for one year already. The term ‘Montagnard’ is a carryover from the French colonial period in Vietnam. It means ‘mountain people’ in French and describes several tribal peoples from the Central Highlands of Vietnam.
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Montagnards were persecuted by the Vietnamese government as a minority due to historical events relating to the Vietnam War and also because they are Christians. Sometimes
the young men have to flee their homes in Vietnam because of this ethnic and religious persecution, forcing them even to leave their families Behind. Montagnard refugees in Thailand fear being sent back to Cambodia where they might not be granted protection but rather be deported again to Vietnam. There, many then disappear without a trace. Bao shared his fear, which he said that all of them shared too, was that they would be sent back to Vietnam and never see the light of the day again.
“We all are also worried about our families, their well being and the health of our little ones. We can only hope that our respective family members are still alive and we can meet them someday in a safe place without any fear…”, he stated further.
Bao explained that while in detention in Bangkok these asylum seekers had written an appeal to the UNHCR seeking protection as refugees. They had not yet heard of any progress from UNHCR and the agency’s last interview with this group had been a long while ago. Lack of information was causing this group to be concerned about the slow progress of their case: they were worried that not all of them have been interviewed and that there had been not follow-up yet from the UNHCR. They also had not been able to contact their families left behind in Vietnam.
I was asked to help them with these issues and I promised that I would contact the UNHCR office and let them know any new information concerning them.
JRS colleagues have subsequently informed me that due to a recent policy change Montagnards would not be deported to Cambodia. But a durable solution still has to be found for these soft spoken young Montagnards who otherwise face indefinite detention in Thailand.
Tags: Cambodia, Human Rights, Thailand, USA, Vietnam
Hi Sanjay,
Just wondering if you know any more or if anything has changed from the UNHCR in the last 6 months or so?
I have some Vietnamese friends whom I met in Thailand early in 2010 who are in the IDC at the moment. They are Montagnards and I am trying to find out what, if anything, I can do to help them while they are there, or to get out.
Any advice, information you can give me would be very greatly appreciated.
Kind Regards
Alister Stone – a Brit, living in France
On Fri 27 Apr 07 I accompanied a Montagnard refugee from the Koho tribe to the UNHCR offices in Bangkok. He had fled Viet-Nam in 2000 because of persecution of his people by the Vietnamese authorities in the Central Highlands of Viet-Nam and he was seeking refugee status to join relatives in the United States.
The UNHCR representative who interviewed him was an ethnic Vietnamese, Mr Nguyen Anh. I was NOT permitted to attend the interview but had to remain outside on the street because the entrance to that part of the UNHCR offices is locked after each refugee enters or leaves.
The refugee I accompanied to the UNHCR offices later told me that he was asked for his family’s details, the address of where he was staying in Bangkok and who I was and my address. He said that he managed to avoid answering those questions to avoid being arrested, to having his family questioned and to avoid implicating me.
He came out of the UNHCR offices quite shaken following the questioning.
The UNHCR Representative in Ha Noi is Mr Vu Anh Son, another ethnic Vietnamese.
I reported the above to the UNHCR on 14 May 07 but received no reponse.
It amazes me that the UNHCR uses ethnic Vietnamese as representatives, particularly in other countries, to interview Montagnard refugees who fled Viet-Nam because of persecution by the Vietnamese authorities in the Central Highlands of Viet-Nam.