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Very sad if it is confirmed that a significant number of Cambodians of Vietnamese origin are being driven from their homes. According to this article, living in Cambodia is becoming increasingly difficult for Vietnamese families, even for those who have been here a long time and have papers: evictions, "taxes" and immigrant "fines" have all been increasing recently.

Vietnamese Families Leave the Tonle Sap

Ethnic Vietnamese residents of Tonle Sap Lake are continuing to head back to Vietnam in droves due to overbearing and costly rules being strictly enforced by local authorities, robbing many of them of the only homeland they have ever known.

Minority Rights Organization (MIRO) official Seorn Chumsothun said yesterday that more than 100 Vietnamese families living in Kampong Chhnang province had fled to Vietnam over the past two months.

“Since July, more than 100 Vietnamese families returned to their country by boat, and approximately 50 more families will go back,” he said.

In a report released this year, MIRO said Vietnamese residents are encountering more economic difficulty and outright human rights violations than most ethnic groups in Cambodia.

The report highlights the fact that even those born in Cambodia are still seen as immigrants or foreigners and this presents a host of problems for many who have little to no connection to Vietnam.

Many of the families moving to Vietnam did so because they were either not allowed access to the proper legal documents allowing them to stay in Cambodia or felt that the money needed for the documents was beyond their reach...
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/29279/ ... tonle-sap/

A different take on the subject which points the finger at environmental damage and decimated fishing on the Tonle Sap as a key reason for the Vietnamese migration.
Floating Villages in Cambodia's Tonle Sap are being Scuttled
Sept. 2016.

Thousands of ethnic Vietnamese living in the floating villages that dot the Tonle Sap are being repatriated to Vietnam as their livelihood drains away and they can’t come up with the documentation needed to stay in Cambodia, RFA’s Khmer Service has learned.

While hard numbers are difficult to come by, VietnamNet reported that 5,000 ethnic Vietnamese families who had been living in the floating villages are now living in Vietnam.

A group of Vietnamese still living in the floating village in Kampong Chhnang’s Svay Chrum Commune told RFA that while they were born in Cambodia they are leaving because environmental damage to the Tonle Sap has decimated the fishing and they can’t prove their residency in Cambodia.

Nguyen Yaing An told RFA that while life is tough enough, Cambodian authorities have tried to move them from place to place, and lately the authorities attempted to convince them buy land to live near what is the largest fresh water lake in Southeast Asia.

The land offer appears genuine, but it is costly and the plots also lack titles or other documentation that prove the new owners have the right to stay...

Tot Kim Sroy, the Minorities Rights Organization (MIRO) coordinating official in Kampong Chhnang, told RFA that the poverty among the Vietnamese living on the lake is epidemic, but the biggest challenge is the lack of fish...
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodi ... 53009.html

Thoughtful article on anti-Vietnamese sentiments in Cambodia. Worth a read.

Cambodia's Anti-Vietnam Obsession
Anti-Vietnamese sentiment dominates Cambodia, even among otherwise progressive NGOs and political groups.
By Tim Frewer
September 06, 2016

http://thediplomat.com/2016/09/cambodia ... obsession/

Vietnamese Families Leave the Tonle Sap
September 2, 2016
Ethnic Vietnamese residents of Tonle Sap Lake are continuing to head back to Vietnam in droves due to overbearing and costly rules being strictly enforced by local authorities, robbing many of them of the only homeland they have ever known.

Minority Rights Organization (MIRO) official Seorn Chumsothun said yesterday that more than 100 Vietnamese families living in Kampong Chhnang province had fled to Vietnam over the past two months.

“Since July, more than 100 Vietnamese families returned to their country by boat, and approximately 50 more families will go back,” he said.

In a report released this year, MIRO said Vietnamese residents are encountering more economic difficulty and outright human rights violations than most ethnic groups in Cambodia.

The report highlights the fact that even those born in Cambodia are still seen as immigrants or foreigners and this presents a host of problems for many who have little to no connection to Vietnam.

Many of the families moving to Vietnam did so because they were either not allowed access to the proper legal documents allowing them to stay in Cambodia or felt that the money needed for the documents was beyond their reach.

Local authorities started asking Vietnamese residents last year for 50,000 riel (about $12.50) per family member per year for so-called “immigrant passes.”

Despite living in Cambodia for decades, families said they were still unable to get residency and citizenship papers because they could not speak Khmer.

“What we know is that they went back to their country because it is difficult living here and they have to pay for legal services that require them to pay 250,000 riel per year. They have so many family members so they cannot afford to pay this, forcing them to leave,” Mr. Chumsothun told Khmer Times.

Last year, the large Vietnamese community of more than 1,000 families living in floating houses on the Tonle Sap were forcibly evicted and told to move inland, about three kilometers away from Psa Krom dock in Kampong Chhnang.

The evictions were slammed by human rights organizations for being callous and many said the decision had undertones of racism, due in no small part to the additional “foreigner” taxes and “immigrant” fines forced on ethnically Vietnamese families who had been living in Cambodia since before the Khmer Rouge regime took over.

The fines and evictions forced the hand of Vietnamese families unable to cover the costs of staying in the area. “Because they are poor, the only way for them [to survive] is to go back to their country.”
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/29279 ... tonle-sap/

I feel bad for them. One thing I realized fast is how prejudice most Khmers are to Vietnamese ppl. It's a shame.

strange the animus against them while the PRC eats the place wholesale.

money, wat else?

bvanfossen wrote: ↑Sun Sep 02, 2018 11:18 pm I feel bad for them. One thing I realized fast is how prejudice most Khmers are to Vietnamese ppl. It's a shame.

Prior experience in asia in general, and around SEA and bengal is that this is common around the region. Bengalis are very unaccepting/critical of Nepalis despite the numbers passing through the country.
Indians and Bengalis keeping very much to themselves when abroad- Malaya/KL, we had Bengali colleagues who would only very rarely have any dealings with the Malay, and only when with westerners.

frank lee bent wrote: ↑Sun Sep 02, 2018 11:53 pm strange the animus against them while the PRC eats the place wholesale.

I've heard directly from a close friend who is the partner of an ethic Vietnamese lady who, along with her extended family, have been here for decades, and the younger generations were born here. He says the ethnic Vietnamese are being removed from the country using poor or faulty documentation dating back beyond memory, at the request of the PRC which doesn't want competition as they take over the country. I don't know to what degree this is a reality, but from what I see it has at least some truth to it.

frank lee bent wrote: ↑Sun Sep 02, 2018 11:53 pm strange the animus against them while the PRC eats the place wholesale.

The night is young...