Chong Kneas floating village, only 15 kilometers south of Siem Reap, is one of hundreds that line Tonle Sap Lake. Tens of thousands of families live in these clustered homes, around 40% of whom are Vietnamese living as undocumented migrants. During a visit in March, the sun held all firmly in its grip, forcing villagers …
Inside Cambodia’s Floating Village, Where 40% of People Are Ethnic Vietnamese Read More »
The next time you see a single penny on the ground, whether you make the effort to pick it up or not, I invite you to think of the two young sisters flanking Jocelyn and Mai Khanh in the photo below. What is the deal with a single penny, you ask? Because it takes each …
Exploited or Liberated…Your Call Entirely By Richard Botkin Read More »
Kampong Chhnang deputy provincial governor Sun Sovannarith reaffirmed that the 40ha the provincial authorities allocated to Vietnamese boat people is Cambodian national Ros Chamroeun’s private land. He said there was no cutting of land for them, but the Vietnamese immigrants will have to pay rent to live in the location with no right to own …
Land allotted for Kampong Chhnang boat people must be rented Read More »
The UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Cambodia, Rhona Smith, on Thursday called on the government to be fair and transparent when handling the issue of the evicted Vietnamese families in Kampong Chhnang province. She made the statement during a press briefing at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on …
Smith calls for fairness in evicting VN families Read More »
Interior Minister Sar Kheng on Thursday defended the actions of Cambodian authorities in relocating Vietnamese nationals living in houseboats on the Tonle Sap river in Kampong Chhnang province, saying the “volunteer” policy came on the back of “environmental” concerns. Sar Kheng who is also Deputy Prime Minister was commenting after Vietnamese Foreign Affairs Minister Pham …
Chong Koh.Andrea Frazzetta/Institute, for The New York Times Floating villages spread across the surface of the Mekong River’s waterways, playinghost to ethnic Vietnamese whose status in Cambodian society is perpetually adrift. By BEN MAUK MARCH 28, 2018 This article was written with the support of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. The best handyman living among …
A People In Limbo, Many Living Entirely on the Water Read More »
In July the Mekong River, the precious lifeline for four Southeast Asian countries and China’s Yunnan Province fell to its lowest levels in 100 years, the victim of increasing climate change, agricultural runoff, and a plethora of upstream dams that threaten its existence. The rains have finally come, but the worst casualties of a tamed …
That he speaks thinks and dreams in Khmer, the official language of Cambodia, is nothing unusual for Liv Yang Bin, an ethnic Vietnamese man whose great-grandparents settled generations earlier in the Trouy Sla commune, about 50km south of the capital, Phnom Penh. “We are all Cambodians here. But the Khmer families, own land or run …
Ethnic Vietnamese in Cambodia face discrimination Read More »
“Having almost no rights in their home country, Cambodia’s ethnic Vietnamese are forced to live on the water, in poor conditions and with few opportunities.” With a smile, 62-year-old Sreng Talong remembers being deported from his home country. The expulsion saved his life. It was in late 1975, a few months after the Khmer Rouge …
Hope floats: Cambodia’s ethnic Vietnamese Forced to Live on the Water Read More »
