Cambodia to confiscate documents of tens of thousands of Vietnamese people

Cambodia's Interior Ministry plans to collect "incorrectly and improperly issued" identity documents for 70,000 people, mostly of Vietnamese origin.

Interior Minister Sar Kheng. Photo: PhnomPenhPost.

Minister of the InteriorSar Kheng chaired a meeting on October 4 to discuss the revocation of wrongly issued or erroneous documents, according to the Phnom Penh Post.

“They are foreigners who have incorrect documents because they were issued wrongly. The capacity of the officials is weak and the weakness is not from the lower levels but from the higher levels,” Mr Kheng said. “It is a national problem, not a specific individual problem. So we need to solve this.”

Sok Phal, head of the Immigration Department, said that offending officials would be "punished" and a decree would be issued in the coming months.

He said about 70,000 people have illegal nationality, most of them Vietnamese born in Cambodia, with no other nationality.In the capital Phnom Penh, the ministry identified 7,501 cases of incorrect birth certificates and 305 faulty passports.

According to Mr. Phal, a decree passed in August allows the government to cancel documents such as identity cards and passports, revoking the citizenship of thousands of people. "We are not stripping their citizenship. They are Vietnamese. We are just taking their Cambodian documents," he said.

Phal said these people would be treated as illegal immigrants, but assured them they would not be forced to leave. They could apply to be considered for immigration status.

According to VNE