PHNOM PENH - Another 116 ethnic minority hill people from Vietnam have fled to Cambodia, swelling the number seeking asylum there to almost 500, U.N. officials said on Monday.
The 116 crossed into Cambodia last week and were now at two U.N. refugee camps near the Vietnamese border, said John Farvolden, head of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Cambodia.
The latest influx of asylum seekers is the largest in months, but it is was not known what had prompted their exodus from Vietnam, Farvolden said.
"We have not been able to talk with the group yet so we don't yet understand why they crossed into Cambodia," he said.
Hundreds of ethnic minority people fled to Cambodia from Vietnam's Central Highlands earlier this year after Hanoi launched a crackdown on protests over land rights and religious freedom.
A total of 490 minority people are now under U.N. protection in Cambodia waiting to be granted refugee status, Farvolden said.
"We are speaking with the Vietnamese and the Cambodian governments. We are still optimistic we can resolve this. It's a question of time," he said.
In July the UNHCR came under strong criticism from human rights groups after it rejected asylum requests from 107 minority people and told them to leave the refugee camps. Their whereabouts now are not known.
U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said no asylum requests should be rejected until the situation in Vietnam's Central Highlands was fully known.
A UNHCR plan to voluntarily repatriate asylum seekers was rejected by Hanoi in July. Vietnam refused to allow the United Nations to visit the Central Highlands and monitor the repatriation.
But Vietnam has promised the UNHCR it would ensure the "safe, dignified and voluntary" return of the asylum seekers in Cambodia.
Cambodia has also made clear to the United Nations that the asylum seekers' stay is temporary.
The first 38 hilltribe asylum seekers to enter Cambodia in March were resettled in the United States, provoking a strong reaction from Hanoi which said the United States was trying to inflame unrest in the Central Highlands.
02:52 09-03-01
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