ANOTHER UNEVENTFUL CAMBODIAN DEPORTATION OF

UNCLAS PHNOM PENH 001458 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR EAP/MLS AND PRM BANGKOK FOR REFCOORD SCHERER HO CHI MINH CITY FOR TIM SWANSON GENEVA FOR RMA E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREF CB VM SUBJECT: ANOTHER UNEVENTFUL CAMBODIAN DEPORTATION OF SCREENED-OUT MONTAGNARDS REF: A. PHNOM PENH 1303 ¶B. PHNOM PENH 104 ¶1. (SBU) Early in the morning of November 30, 21 ethnic Montagnard Vietnamese citizens departed a UNHCR site in Phnom Penh by bus headed for the Cambodia-Vietnam border in the first forced repatriation since January 2007 (ref B). The 21 individuals being deported arrived in Cambodia prior to May 1, the cutoff date for Montagnard arrivals to be considered for U.S. resettlement if UNHCR denied them refugee status. The UNHCR had denied the 21 individuals refugee status and they had subsequently been rejected for resettlement in the U.S. following DHS USCIS interviews. The deportation was originally scheduled for October 18, but was postponed because 20 of the individuals still fell within a 90-day period to request a review of their rejection by DHS (ref A). That 90-day period ended November 22. ¶2. (SBU) The deportation went quietly and without incident. When the bus pulled out of the compound, adults on the bus were not smiling but they were waving, and children in the back of the bus were smiling and waving. Cambodian police officers, an MFA official and an MOI official were also at the site, as well as a UNHCR representative and a reporter from The Cambodia Daily. A Cambodian police official and an MFA official accompanied the Montagnards to the Vietnamese border, where they were to be turned over to Vietnamese authorities. MUSSOMELI