Thousands of overseas Vietnamese live along Dau Tieng Lake

Returning home after decades of living in Cambodia, thousands of Vietnamese people now have no identity papers and live in dire straits near the Tay Ninh border.

At the end of the muddy red dirt road in the rainy season, hundreds of houses built from tree trunks and boat roofs appear in a rickety, tattered scene on the shore of Dau Tieng Lake (Ta Do hamlet, Tan Thanh commune, Tan Chau district, Tay Ninh). This is a temporary village of overseas Vietnamese from the Tonle Sap area (Cambodia) who have drifted here to live. Some households have returned for 7 years, others have only been back for a few months, but all of them have no identification papers, nationality, house, money...

Overseas Vietnamese hamlet on the shore of Dau Tieng Lake, Tay Ninh. Photo: Duy Tran

The vacant land by the lake looks shabby because of the dilapidated huts of 4-12 m2 made from Melaleuca poles, bamboo, planks, covered with canvas. Many households that could not buy materials pulled their boats (which helped them travel thousands of kilometers to Vietnam) ashore and considered them their homes. In large families, they built beds or bamboo stalls of about 3-8 m2 for 4-5 people to eat, sleep, and live.

Having brought his family of nearly 10 people here for 3 months, Mr. Huynh Cong Dai (70 years old) said that he followed his parents to the Tonle Sap area of ​​Cambodia to make a living when he was very young. Later, he had a family, children and grandchildren, all of whom followed the fishing profession. There are many Vietnamese people like his family there. In recent years, the government of the neighboring country has tightened fishing regulations, making everyone's life precarious.

"Someone who violates this order should be detained. If they don't have money to pay the fine, they will be imprisoned. If they can't earn money and live off others, they will ask their children to return to Vietnam," Mr. Dai said, taking a long drag on his cigarette.

The old man's family's journey from Tonle Sap Lake lasted 15 days, going down the Vam Co River. The reason Mr. Dai and other Cambodian Vietnamese chose Dau Tieng Lake as their refuge was because it was large and had many fish similar to those in the neighboring country.

"We don't have money to buy land, so we move our house close to the water's edge for convenience. When the water rises, the whole family pulls up the poles and carries them to higher ground. There are 10 people in the family, so we make two beds out of planks and bamboo, so they're light," Mr. Dai sighed, looking at the water level rising to the bedposts.

Thousands of people are living without electricity, clean water, or money... on Dau Tieng Lake. Every day, men row boats to the lake to fish, earning 70,000-80,000 VND. Children and women go to residential areas to sell lottery tickets and take care of ducks and chickens. All activities from eating, bathing, to going to the toilet require water from the lake.

The children in this Vietnamese community all look alike, with dark skin, yellow hair from being out in the sun all day, and no schooling at all. Each family here has at least 3-4 children, and at most 7-8. They play together in groups because outside children are forbidden from contact with their families.

Tien, Do and La are three siblings. The oldest is 9 years old, the youngest is 5 years old and all stay at home to help with the housework. Their father, Mr. Am, said that he really wants his children to have birth certificates so they can go to school, so that they can have a chance to get a job in a company and escape the same life as their parents. "Back in Cambodia, we also sent them to school for a few dong each session to learn how to read and write, but it was too expensive so we stopped. Now we really want our children to go to school, but we are also worried that we have too many mouths to feed and no one to help with the housework," Mr. Am said.

A boat pulled ashore to serve as a shelter for 3-4 people. Photo: Duy Tran

The entire Vietnamese community of more than 1,000 people living along Dau Tieng Lake currently has no nationality.They do not have any documents to prove that they were born or reside in Vietnam, except for their accent. Having lived in Cambodia for decades but living in the river, isolated and without any contact with the outside world, all kinds of documents and letters are unfamiliar to them.

Returning to Vietnam two years ago, Ms. Le Thi Huong (43 years old) said that the local authorities could not issue her papers because they could not determine where she was born or where she lived. "We here no longer know where our hometown is, we have been wandering for too long. We were also born and raised by the Tonle Sap Lake, following our parents to fish, then had husbands and children, without knowing any papers. Wherever we live now is our hometown," Ms. Huong said sadly.

According to Tan Thanh Commune Party Secretary Duong Thi Vat, initially there were only about 3-4 households returning from Cambodia, and the local authorities had not yet had time to contact them, but a few nights later hundreds of households appeared, setting up huts overnight. Statistics show there are currently 352 households with more than 1,000 people.

"Life in Cambodia is so difficult that more and more people are returning to Vietnam by boat. The government distributes rice to help the children and organizes to send them to school, but after a few sessions, the children drop out because their families force them to work, even though the commune and school come down to persuade them," said Ms. Vat.

Chairman of Tan Thanh Commune People's Committee Tran Quang Ghi informed the localityinstructed households to return to the Vietnamese Embassy in Cambodia to certify documents to complete the procedures to legalize their identity papers. However, no household has been able to do so because they do not have money to travel and are illiterate.Tay Ninh Department of Justice has just coordinated with local authorities to compile statistics and verify to complete the dossier and consider issuing documents for them.

"The district and commune plans have been completed and submitted to the province for approval and implementation. It is difficult for those who return without papers, but children born in the overseas Vietnamese community are automatically given birth certificates," said Mr. Ghi.

In the recently completed residential area plan for overseas Vietnamese in Cambodia, the government will use public land to build more than 100 houses for households in Ta Do hamlet. This area will have full electricity and water, close to Dau Tieng lake for them to fish. However, Mr. Ghi did not hide his fear that "if we build houses for them, the Vietnamese in Tonle Sap will hear the news and return, which will be a huge pressure".

"More than a hundred houses can be handled, but if tens of thousands of people return, the plan will be ruined. The security situation in the overseas Vietnamese community is already complicated, if more people come, it will be uncontrollable," Mr. Ghi analyzed.

Children who don't go to school play on the lake every afternoon. Photo: Duy Tran

Faced with the situation of Vietnamese people in Tonle Sap returning home and having to live in hardship, in mid-July, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc issued an official dispatch requesting localities to urgently resolve problems so that they can integrate and live. Currently, they live concentrated in the upper reaches of the Saigon River in the provinces of Tay Ninh, Binh Phuoc and Tan Hung area of ​​Long An.

According to VNE