Temporary reprieve for 750 ethnic Vietnamese families
16 november 2018
- Deputy Kampong Chhnang Governor Sun Sovannarith said authorities are struggling to relocate about 750 ethnic Vietnamese families living on the river banks with their fishing cages.

“The problem we are facing is the infrastructure under construction. We are unable to provide enough clean water, electricity, and roads to all of them. So the relocation takes time to finish,” Mr Sovannarith said.

He added that the 750 families have been given permission to temporarily stay on the river, but must relocate by the middle of next year.

A total of 2,397 ethnic Vietnamese families and 2,188 Khmer Cham families were living on the river and are expected to relocate to one of six designated areas in Kampong Chhnang city or Boribor, Kampong Tralach and Chol Kiri districts by the end of next year, according to Mr Sovannarith.
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50551426/a ... -families/

It appears that the announced reprieve for Vietnamese families living on houseboats on the Tonle Sap River in Kampong Chhnang has been denied by the authorities. The families of Vietnamese origin will be asked to move immediately, despite the lack of preparation and the necessary infrastructure in their new environment.

1 min ago - BREAKING NEWS
River relocation request rejected
A request from the Khmer Vietnamese Association for the Interior Ministry to delay the relocation of Vietnamese families living on the Tonle Sap river in Kampong Chhnang province has been rejected.

The KVA’s letter, submitted last week, asked the ministry to intervene in the relocation of 2,397 ethnic Vietnamese families, noting that the land they are being relocated to lacks the necessary infrastructure to support them.

Interior Minister Sar Kheng on Saturday made the request public when he denied the delay during an interview with local media, despite admitting on Thursday that authorities have faced difficulties relocating the families due to a lack of infrastructure.

Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak confirmed the denial of an extension when reached by phone.

“The government had thought about their concerns before making such a move,” Mr Sopheak said. “We are actually doing this for them. We could not let them live on floating houses – it’s dangerous and difficult to control.”

“The plan had been delayed for years, so now I think it’s time. We want the Vietnamese residents to understand and learn how Cambodians are living after the Khmer Rouge,” he added. “Roads, electricity, schools and hospitals will be built for sure.”
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/551690/riv ... -rejected/

The situation of the floating villagers remains unclear, and the relocation has been put on hold. Many Vietnamese families have already been forced to move from their river homes, but now some of the wealthier fish farmer families will be allowed to stay for another 6 months. Eventually, the authorities say they want to move the people inland and keep the fish farms as tourist attractions.

Tonle Sap Vietnamese to stay on river for now
03 January 2019 | 08:41 ICT
Kampong Chhnang provincial authorities announced they have allowed 750 ethnic Vietnamese families living on the Tonle Sap river to stay until July, after more than 3,000 other Vietnamese families voluntarily relocated to designated areas on higher ground.

[Provincial deputy governor ] Sovannarith said the relocation plan will be carried out in two phases.

“First, the authority is building suitable infrastructure for those who have already relocated and who do not own any caged fish farms. The remaining families who own caged fish farms will also have to move further inland in July, but the fish farms will be maintained,” he said.

In the second phase, Sovannarith said the authority is working in conjunction with private firms to standardise the fish farms before turning them into a tourist attraction.

“We want them to remain in this place so we can study the area and their fish farming, before turning it into a tourism community where we can generate revenues from ticket sales to tourists,” he said.

Spokesman for rights group Adhoc Soeung Sen Karuna took issue with the authority’s seven-month timeline. He said those who have already relocated might protest the decision.

“For the families who agreed to relocate voluntarily, the authority needs to demonstrate why they had to move while better-off families who own fish farms remain."

“I’m worried that they may protest the unequal treatment. This is an issue that needs to be addressed. We want to see [the authority] enforce the law on an equal basis so the authority needs to explain to those who have relocated why they let better-off families stay,” he said.
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ ... -river-now

Embassy supports Vietnamese Cambodians in Tonle Sap Lake
VNA Monday, January 21, 2019 - 21:22:00 Print
Phnom Penh (VNA) - A delegation of the Embassy of Vietnam in Cambodia led by Ambassador Vu Quang Minh visited Vietnamese Cambodians in Kampong Chhang province on January 21 ahead of Vietnam’s Lunar New Year (Tet) festival.

While extending Tet greetings to the overseas Vietnamese living in the Tonle Sap Lake who are now temporarily relocated in Chong Kok village of Phsar Chhang district, Minh affirmed that the Party, State, Government and the Embassy of Vietnam will launch more activities in the coming time to help poor Vietnamese Cambodians to stabilise their lives, especially those on Tonle Sap Lake who are required to be relocated.

He noted that Vietnamese businesses in Cambodia are willing to support people in changing jobs and encouraged Vietnamese Cambodians to send their children to local schools to better integrate in the local society.

At the event, as many as 1,000 poor households in Chong Kok village received Tet gift packages from the embassy.

On January 22, the delegation is scheduled to pay a visit and present gifts to 500 families in shelters in Kampong Tralach, Rolea Paea and Cholkiri districts.

The Vietnamese officials previously attended a working session with Governor Chuhhua Chann Doeun of Kampong Chhang province and asked local authorities to pay due attention to Vietnamese Cambodian in the resettlement plan of the province and promptly address their problems.
https://en.vietnamplus.vn/embassy-suppo ... 145522.vnp

Vietnamese Evicted From Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Begin to Return
By RFA -
January 26, 2019
Ethnic Vietnamese evicted last year from a floating village on Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Lake are beginning to return, citing poor conditions at the site chosen for their relocation and claiming they need to look after fish farms left behind, Cambodian sources say.

The move to evict residents of the floating village follows a campaign two years ago that saw thousands repatriated to Vietnam from their homes on the Tonle Sap, where global warming and overfishing have reduced the seasonal inflow and outflow of water on the environmentally threatened lake.

Meanwhile, more than two-thirds of around 2,300 residents were moved from the lake last year to land almost a mile away in Kampong Chhang province, with around 700 families allowed to remain because their homes use floating nets to farm fish.

In full: https://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambod ... 52315.html

May 10, 2019
Rhona Smith “deeply concerned” with Kampong Chhang relocation sites
Rhona Smith, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Cambodia, has called on Cambodian authorities to ensure that all temporary and permanent relocation sites have the necessary infrastructure.

Ms Smith yesterday (May 9) reported that she undertook a follow-up field trip to Kampong Chhang to visit people from floating villages whom the authorities have moved onto dry land.

She noted that the villagers are Khmer, Cham (Khmer Islam) and ethnic Vietnamese; they are poor; and are at risk of being forgotten. Many are living on sub-optimal temporary relocation sites, few on permanent ones.

“Any relocation site must have ample water, sanitation, and electricity; a transport infrastructure, and offer access to an appropriate livelihood to support an adequate standard of living.”

Ms Smith added that she was deeply concerned by the levels of solid/plastic waste and non-secured wastewater at temporary relocation sites, especially at Chhnok Trou. She fears that this will lead to serious pollution when the water rises and negatively impact these people’s right to good health.
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50602858/r ... ion-sites/

I hope the UN toothless tiger repeats those strong words on her next trip to the Gaza strip.

Support given to Vietnamese Cambodians in Kampong Chhnang
By VNA - May 26, 2019

An inter-sectoral working delegation led by Deputy Foreign Minister and head of the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese Affairs Nguyen Quoc Cuong has visited Vietnamese Cambodians in Phsar Chhnang ward and Chnoc Trou temporary resettlement area in Boribour district of Cambodia’s Kampong Chhnang province.

The Vietnamese Cambodians are facing a range of difficulties, especially during the implementation of the Cambodian Government’s policy to relocate households living in floating houses in Tonle Sap Lake.

Since September 2018, Kampong Chhnang authorities have conducted relocation of floating households. The local administration has supported the community in health care and resettlement areas. To date, more than 1,068 households have been relocated, while 641 others are still staying on fish floats.

Earlier on May 23, the working delegation had a working session with Kampong Chhnang’s Governor Chhour Chandoeun and relevant agencies taking charge of the Vietnamese-Cambodian community in the province.

The provincial leader affirmed that the Cambodian side hopes to cooperate with Vietnam to develop a fish cage farming model and eco-tourism village.
In full: https://en.vietnamplus.vn/support-given ... 153201.vnp

‘Plight’ of Tonle Sap VN raised
30 May 2019
A senior Vietnamese official has requested the Cambodian government to pay more attention to the plight of ethnic Vietnamese who were relocated from the Tonle Sap Lake to live on the mainland and pledged to provide more cooperation to help them.

Cambodia has also urged further collaboration between the two countries on security, defence and counter-terrorism.

The Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reported on Wednesday that Chairwoman of the National Assembly of Vietnam Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan made the request during a meeting with National Assembly president Heng Samrin, who is currently on a three-day state visit to the country until Thursday.

“Regarding the resettlement of ethnic Vietnamese on the Tonle Sap Lake, Ngan asked the Cambodian side to pay attention to ensuring the lives, interests and assets of relocated people.

“She affirmed that Vietnam will join hands with Cambodia to provide support for them to soon stabilise their lives."

“She spoke highly of Cambodia’s close coordination in granting legal documents to Vietnamese-Cambodians, and urged its relevant agencies and localities to soon issue specific and clear regulations on the rights and obligations of those holding foreign registration cards,” VNA wrote.

Last year, more than 4,000 families living in floating houses on the Tonle Sap Lake, of whom 1,860 were Vietnamese, were ordered to relocate to the mainland by Kampong Chhnang provincial authorities.
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ ... -vn-raised

An article on the Vietnamese inhabitants of Cambodia's floating villages. Long read from the NY Times. It was posted last year by cambo swa, (post236032.html?hilit=limbo#p235639), but in case you missed it:

A People in Limbo, Many Living Entirely on the Water
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 the boat people in Chong Koh was named Taing Hoarith. Most days, Hoarith woke up at 5 a.m. and bought a bowl of noodle soup from a passing sampan, the same genre of wandering bodega from which his wife, Vo Thi Vioh, sold vegetables houseboat to houseboat. When she left for the day, around 6, Hoarith rolled up their floor mat and got to work.

Chong Koh is one of hundreds of floating villages, comprising tens of thousands of families, on the Tonle Sap River and the lake of the same name in Cambodia. Dangers on a floating village multiply in the rainy season. When I first visited, in late July, there was always something for Hoarith to do: repairing storm damage in a wall of thatched palm, clearing the water hyacinths that collected along the upstream porch. Sometimes the house had to be towed closer to the receding shoreline so that storms or the waves of passing ships would not capsize it. Every few months, he got his ancient air compressor working and swam beneath the house, a rubber hose between his teeth, to refill the cement jars that kept the whole thing buoyant. He was mindful of pythons.

The afternoon of my arrival, Hoarith was squatting over an old butane camp stove, scraping at a rusted gas valve. Rust was the common enemy on the water. Someone had thrown the stove away, but he thought he could fix it to sell on his next trip onto the lake. His wooden long-tail, moored against the house, covered in tarpaulin and heavy with cargo, carried him to floating villages as far as 90 miles away. “I know Tonle Sap like my hand,” he said. There was Prek Tor, a remote village where every family, rich or poor, had a wooden cage for raising crocodiles. And Kbal Taol, where fishermen lived in clustered homes on the open water, risking the daily storms, competing to catch hatchlings with nets up to half a mile long. Hoarith visited them all. He was sometimes on the lake for a month at a stretch, selling pots and stoves, sleeping rough under the long-tail’s planked roof.

But he always came back to Chong Koh, his home of several years, where the villagers live on cabin-size houseboats and junks arranged in tidy rows orthogonal to either shore. In the space between houses, some families raise carp and catfish in bamboo cages or keep floating gardens of potted pepper and papaya trees. Other villages are labyrinthine extensions of nearby shore towns, with broad Venetian canals and twisting alleyways, floating temples, churches, schoolrooms and oil-black ice factories. Chong Koh is relatively small, and shrinking — Cambodian authorities would like it to disappear entirely — but it lies about a mile from the heart of Kampong Chhnang, the large provincial capital, and as Hoarith worked, a steady fleet of peddlers took their boats to and from its markets.

While Hoarith picked at the stove with a screwdriver, a neighbor lay in a hammock, watching him work. The neighbor, like Hoarith and everyone else in the village, was ethnically Vietnamese, and he had a Vietnamese name, Vieng Yang Nang. But most of the time he went by Samnang, which means “lucky” in Khmer, the language of Cambodia’s ethnic majority. Both men kept two names on the water — one Khmer, one Vietnamese — and switched between them freely. They felt at home in both worlds, although they weren’t always accepted in the first. In Cambodia, where the concepts of nationality and ethnicity are inextricable, members of the ethnic Vietnamese minority are known as yuon, a ubiquitous slur that is sometimes translated as “savage.”
Full article: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/201 ... ge.html?hp