Crackdown on Undocumented Vietnamese Workers Gains Speed

Undocumented Vietnamese migrant workers await to be sent to the Vietnamese border for deportation yesterday. Photo: Immigration Police 

Khmer Times/Ros Chanveasna

Tuesday, 21 July 2015

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PHNOM PENH (Khmer Times) – Cambodia’s Immigration Police arrested 36 undocumented Vietnamese workers during raids in central Phnom Penh and Kandal province yesterday, while 72 more Vietnamese nationals were deported from the Kingdom, officials said.

Major General Uk Heisela, chief investigator at the Ministry of Interior’s Immigration Department, told Khmer Times that 33 undocumented Vietnamese workers were deported yesterday morning after being arrested in Phnom Penh as well as Preah Sihanouk and Ratanakkiri provinces.

Another 39 other Vietnamese nationals caught in Cambodian territorial waters off of Koh Kong province were also deported, he said. 

Maj. Gen. Heisela said the Vietnamese nationals did not have passports and would be placed on the no-entry list permanently.

“Not Racially Motivated”

Political analyst Sok Touch said the raids were not racially motivated. “The Cambodian government doesn’t target only Vietnamese nationals, but it is improving enforcement of immigration law within the Kingdom,” he said. 

Mr. Touch said the opposition has long criticized the government for lax enforcement of immigration laws. If the government continues to enforce the laws, the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) will regain its popularity and win more votes in the next election, he added.     

Nationwide Crackdown  

Another 21 Vietnamese nationals were detained in Phnom Penh’s Daun Penh district and 15 more in Kandal province’s Saang district on Monday, according to immigration police.

“If they do not have passports we will deport them and put them on the permanent no-entry list,” Gen. Heisela said.

The general commissariat of National Police began opening about 90 new immigration offices throughout the country on July 17 to locate and arrest undocumented foreign workers.  

Gen. Heisela said this speeds up the process of verifying whether foreign nationals are in the country legally or not. 

“We can more efficiently regulate all foreigners after establishing offices throughout the country,” he said.