UNHCR signs agreement with Viet Nam, Cambodia on Montagnards

GENEVA, Jan 26 (UNHCR) - The UN refugee agency has signed an agreement with Viet Nam and Cambodia settling various issues concerning UNHCR's current caseload of Montagnard refugees and asylum seekers in Cambodia. The agreement sets out the basis for resettlement and repatriation as well as specifying that returnees to Viet Nam will not be prosecuted or face discrimination.

The agreement, a memorandum of understanding, was signed in Hanoi on Tuesday after two days of talks between the three parties involved. The aim was to find a solution for some 750 Montagnards, an ethnic minority group from Viet Nam's Central Highlands, who had crossed into Cambodia and are staying in temporary sites under the protection of UNHCR.

"We decided that this agreement would focus on this group of refugees only and would not necessarily apply to members of the Montagnard minority who may flee Viet Nam in the future," UNHCR's Director of International Protection, Erika Feller, said after the signing ceremony in Hanoi.

"However, if it works the way we hope it will work, then this agreement will be a basis for the future," she added.

The agreement calls for an expeditious resettlement for those Montagnards who wish to be resettled to third countries, and a quick return to Viet Nam for those who volunteer to be repatriated. Montagnards who neither want to resettle in third countries nor return to Viet Nam will have one month after the determination of their refugee status to decide on either resettlement or return to Viet Nam.

"If they do not decide, the Royal Government of Cambodia and UNHCR will work with the Vietnamese Government to bring them back to Viet Nam in an orderly and safe fashion and in conformity with national and international laws," the agreement states.

The Vietnamese government has given written guarantees that the returnees will not be punished, discriminated against and/or prosecuted for their illegal departure.

The agreement says UNHCR and Viet Nam will "consult and cooperate" on visits to the returnees in Viet Nam's Central Highlands.

In November 2004, the UN refugee agency said it was concerned that a growing number of Montagnards had crossed into Cambodia under the mistaken impression UNHCR could help them get back their confiscated lands. Once it had been made clear the refugee agency could not help them with their land grievances, some asylum seekers said they wanted to return to Viet Nam. Others who had already been recognised as refugees overwhelmingly rejected resettlement. Of some 150 cases submitted for resettlement in the United States, for example, nearly three-quarters decided against going. Cambodia had consistently said that local integration was not an option for the Montagnards.