Khmer Krom monk Tim Sakhorn has gone to Sweden after the approval of his application for political asylum, but uncertainty surrounds the fate of 56 Khmer Krom refugees deported by Thai authorities over the weekend, according to civil society groups.
Thach Setha, executive director of the Khmer Kampuchea Krom Community, told the Post that the 41-year-old monk left Bangkok for Sweden after waiting two months for his asylum bid to be confirmed. Ang Chanrith, executive director of the Khmer Kampuchea Krom Human Rights Organisation, said Tim Sakhorn appeared “happy” ahead of his departure for Europe.
“Tim Sakhorn is OK. He has been granted asylum already, and he is in Europe,” he said. But Ang Chanrith voiced concern for the refugees deported through the Poipet border crossing Friday.
He called on the Cambodian government to provide shelter for the 56 refugees, who have no family in Cambodia, and expressed the fear that they would be imprisoned if they returned to Vietnam. Thach Setha said the deportees had been scheduled to be interviewed by officials from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) before their arrest and were being sheltered temporarily by an NGO in Poipet.
