CEOCambodiaNews wrote: … due to public disturbance, waterway traffic problem with commercial boats, and environmental impact caused by unlawful and unorganized setup…
….the illegal floating houses and mobile fish farms have a severe environmental impact on the water quality, blocking the water traffic for commercial boats, and destabilizing the local ecological system, slowing down the river currents down and blocking them with sediments. The villagers … instead, to go elsewhere to farm and breed them in fish ponds.

Sad situation.

Even more incoherent government circular reasoning for their actions.

Most of those villagers will never be eligible for proper documents from the government.

Why not just be completely honest? The ‘Unity’ force should just tell them that some Okhna has told us to do this and that the villagers are screwed.

July 2, 20211:22 AM Updated 20 hours ago
'Please show mercy': Evicted by Cambodia, ethnic Vietnamese stuck at watery border
By Matt Blomberg
6 Min Read

LEUK DAEK, Cambodia (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Shunned by authorities on both sides of the border, Bach Bai has been relying on the generosity of strangers since his ethnic Vietnamese fishing community was evicted from Cambodia’s capital three weeks ago and cast off downstream on their floating homes.

But few are willing to help hundreds of stateless families, who had earned a living breeding fish and hosting tourists on Cambodia’s Tonle Sap River, and are now moored to a riverbank a few kilometres from Vietnam, desperate to be allowed inside.

“I was born on the Tonle Sap but I’m told Cambodia is no longer my home,” Bai said, squatting on the bow of his tiny vessel in Leuk Daek, about 100 km south of Phnom Penh, as his three young children ate noodles and asked reporters for money.

“We have no money, no medicine and we are running out of rice ... Vietnam, please, show mercy, allow your children to return to the motherland,” he said, after being turned back at the border about two weeks ago.

Some 15 million people worldwide, like Bai, are not recognised as citizens by any country and are increasingly vulnerable with the COVID-19 pandemic, as inequality grows between those with stable work and homes and those without.

The mass eviction - one of the largest in years - has drawn condemnation, as daily COVID-19 infections hit new highs in June in both countries.

“Undertaking a rapid eviction at the height of Cambodia’s COVID-19 outbreak puts this community’s health and human rights at risk,” said Naly Pilorge, director of local human rights group LICADHO.

But locals were not keen to support the displaced ethnic Vietnamese, who make up Cambodia’s largest minority, comprising some 180,000 people - or 1% of the population - according to government data, though many believe the figure is much higher.

“We don’t have a problem with them, so long as they stay in their boats and away from us,” said one shopkeeper in Leuk Daek, who gave her name only as Han.

Chin Vantan, another stateless evictee, said he did not feel safe leaving his boat.

“People here are afraid of us because of COVID-19,” he said. “Some bring us food, but we don’t know how long that will last.”
In full: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-camb ... RA?rpc=401&

A settlement of Vietnamese houseboats was moved on by the Kandal authorities on 13 August, 2021.

Deportation of Vietnamese Immigrants Who Have Newly settled in Leuk Dek
Cambodia News, (Kandal Province): On the orders of Mr. Chap Chanthavitya, Governor of Leuk Dek District and Chairman of the District Unity Command, a group of newly arrived Vietnamese boats were reported to have anchored at Reang Chuor village, Kam Samnor commune, Leuk Dek district, Kandal province.



According to the report, on August 13, 2021, the Immigration Special Forces, in cooperation with the Kham Samnor Administrative Police Force and the Leuk Dek District Gendarmerie, deported the newly arrived Vietnamese immigrants. There are 8 families and 27 people; 15 boats in all, with 8 boats used for accommodation.

The foreigners left the base by towing their houseboats after the local authorities instructed them to move on.