Vietnam Cares for Repatriated Highlanders, UN Agency Finds

Vietnam provided the best possible care for the highlanders who had been repatriated from Cambodia, and helped them integrate into the community, an official at the UN refugee agency has said.

The country representative for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Vu Anh Son, said after a field trip to the Central Highlands province of Dac Nong October 5-6, where he met eight of the 13 returnees, that he and other members of the mission had directly talked with them.

All of them were leading good lives, earning high and stable incomes, after returning, he certified.

The highlanders had illegally fled across the border to Cambodia last year before returning under an agreement between Vietnam, Cambodia, and the UN High Commission for Refugees.

Son said each earned up to hundreds of millions of VND a year, much higher than the national average.

His remark put paid to speculations that the Vietnamese government discriminated against or ill treated the families of people who had gone to Cambodia, the Vietnam News Agency noted.

The speculations had, in the first place, prompted Son’s visit to the Central Highlands, the state news agency said.

(Source: VNA)
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Published: 06 October, 2005, 22:12:28 (GMT+7)
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