Cambodia rebuffs report on asylum seekers' arrests, deportation

 

Khieu Sopheak

PHNOM PENH (Xinhua) -- Cambodia on Wednesday denied a report that it has arrested and deported a group of 13 Montagnard asylum seekers to Vietnam, saying the report was "untrue, groundless and irresponsible."

"In recent past, there has been an argument that Cambodia has arrested 13 Montagnards and sent them back to Vietnam," Interior Ministry spokesman Gen. Khieu Sopheak said in a statement.

"I vehemently deny this untrue information and I see it as an allegation without responsibilities from any individual or civil society."

"I'd like to assure that up to now, we have not received any specific information about the presence or location of the Montagnards (in Cambodia)," he said.

The denial came after a local rights group allegedly said that Cambodia had caught those Montagnard asylum seekers and repatriated them to Vietnam.

In recent weeks, Cambodian media have reported that Cambodian police are seeking in the country's northeast for 13 Vietnamese ethnic minority hill people, known as Montagnards, with a view to deporting them to Vietnam.

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