UNHCR SAYS MONTAGNARD CAMPS MAXED; STATELESS KHMER PLAN

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HANOI 000100 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR EAP/MLS AND PRM, BANGKOK FOR REFUGEE COORDINATOR, GENEVA FOR RMA PHNOM PENH FOR JANET DEUTSCH E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM PREF KIRF CB VM SUBJECT: UNHCR SAYS MONTAGNARD CAMPS MAXED; STATELESS KHMER PLAN PROGRESSING REFS: A) 07 HCMC 1137; B) 07 HANOI 1651 HANOI 00000100 001.2 OF 002 SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. (SBU) In a January 23 farewell call with Ambassador Michalak, retiring UNHCR Regional Representative Hasim Utkan reviewed the progress UNHCR had made in Vietnam over the last several years. Working cooperatively with the GVN, the USG and the international donor community, Utkan said UNHCR had helped "open up" the Central Highlands region and secure, through negotiation, a more permissive environment for development and monitoring from the GVN and local authorities. By contrast, Utkan lamented the current conditions at Montagnard refugee camps in Cambodia, where he said arrivals from Vietnam -- employing dangerous human smugglers -- had been increasing and camps were at maximum capacity. He expressed concern about the role of U.S.-based Montagnard advocacy groups in promoting emigration and called for better communication and education on the USG Visas-93 program and application procedures in Vietnam. On a positive note, Utkan said the GVM Prime Minister had signed off on the UNHCR and GVN Ministry of Foreign Affairs' (MFA) plan to resolve the cases of several thousand stateless persons originally from Cambodia in Southern Vietnam. A full census and process for naturalization to Vietnamese citizenship is the crux of the plan which will begin implementation this year, according to Utkan. End summary. UNHCR: NOT WILLING TO OPEN MORE CAMPS -------------- ¶2. (SBU) At a January 23 farewell call with Ambassador Michalak, UNHCR Regional Representative Hasim Utkan (due to retire at the end of January) told the Ambassador the situation in the three UNHCR-run Montagnard refugee facilities in Cambodia was very difficult, with the facilities close to their maximum holding rate. He said there were now over 500 individuals living at the sites which together have a maximum capacity of 550, and UNHCR was not willing to open more facilities. Utkan said 2007 had seen an increase in Vietnamese Montagnard arrivals to Cambodia and that 80 percent were now coming directly to Phnom Penh, most using human smugglers. Utkan said many of the cases had already been reviewed and rejected for refugee status, while both deportation and refugee resettlement processes were slow and tedious. In some cases, individuals remain at the sites for processing for over one and a half years, and tempers can flare. CONCERN ABOUT US-BASED ADVOCACY GROUPS -------------- ¶3. (SBU) Utkan expressed concern about the role of Montagnard advocacy groups in the United States in "encouraging the exodus" to Phnom Penh to facilitate emigration overseas. He said many of those individuals arriving in Phnom Penh from Vietnam were eligible for the USG Visas-93 program, yet they opted to be smuggled into Cambodia rather than apply for Visas-93 at our ConGen in Ho Chi Minh City. He said the USG, GVN, and UNHCR needed to cooperate more on this issue, stating that local Vietnamese officials needed to be educated and trained on Vietnam's responsibilities under the Tri-Partite MOU, Visas-93 and other USG immigration programs. UNHCR needed to continue to share lists with State's PRM Bureau to help identify and advise sponsoring relatives in the United States, Utkan said, while family members in the United States needed to be advised on how to apply for Visas-93 and that the use of human smugglers for their Vietnam-based relatives was very dangerous. ¶4. (SBU) National and local GVN officials need to cooperate on issuing identity papers to potential refugee applicants and facilitating Visas-93 applications. Identity papers continue to be an issue, Utkan remarked. Utkan also noted that UNHCR, for its part, needed increased staff to accelerate its refugee status determination (RSD) process as well as to process more regular and smaller deportations, which would attract less attention. CENTRAL HIGHLANDS "STABLE" -------------- ¶5. (SBU) Utkan sees Vietnam's Central Highlands region as much more stable than in 2004 (when there were mass protests) and remarked that the region was "in better condition than the Mekong Delta." He told the Ambassador that UNHCR now had a good working relationship with the GVN and there was a "climate of confidence" and cooperation. The region is much more open, has a "moving economy" and provincial authorities are more receptive to foreign delegations, according to Utkan. UNHCR has conducted 18 monitoring HANOI 00000100 002.2 OF 002 missions since 2005 and conducted several micro-projects, including a number funded by the USG. He said while monitoring visits and "private interviews" with ethnic minority returnees was not a perfect science, the situation "had settled" and the system was working. ¶6. (SBU) He told the Ambassador the GVN now understood that they had to develop the Central Highlands region and had since developed better policies to "integrate" rather than "marginalize" the region. He cited land distribution efforts and the establishment of vocational training centers for ethnic minorities. He hoped the international donor community would support ongoing GVN efforts. STATELESS KHMER PLAN "READY FOR IMPLEMENTATION" -------------- -- ¶7. (SBU) Utkan said the GVN Prime Minister's office had recently signed off on a plan (Reftels),developed by UNHCR and the GVN MFA, to survey and naturalize to Vietnamese citizenship a population of stateless persons originally from Cambodia in Southern Vietnam. The GVN agreed to waive a naturalization fee for these largely impoverished individuals, which had been a stumbling block. Utkan was due to see the EU Ambassador in Hanoi to follow up on a pledge by the EU to fund the census component of the plan. However, Utkan said the Plan was "all agreed on" and just needed a final agreement on the logistics. Nevertheless, Utkan asked the Ambassador that he keep it on the Mission's agenda with the GVN. Utkan acknowledged that there was an "expectation of results" now. ¶8. (SBU) Utkan said 3,000 stateless individuals were in former UNHCR camps, while thousands of others had moved into HCMC. Without legal status in Vietnam, they have been denied access to health, education and other public services for decades. He said while the GVN Ministry of Justice (MOJ) and Ministry of Public Security (MPS) had provided road blocks to approval of the plan, it was finally, the Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) People's Committee that had helped push through a deal with the government. Utkan used this as an example to the Ambassador, as with dealing with the Central Highlands, the need to get "buy-in" from provincial-level authorities. ¶9. (U) This cable was coordinated with Consulate General Ho Chi Minh City. MICHALAK