Below are an article published by the Big News Network.com and an article published by The Phnom Penh Post:

Review also an article by Radio Free Asia.

A United Nations human rights expert has called for a speedy solution to the situation of the Montagnards from Vietnam still hiding in the forests of northeastern Cambodia, after crossing the border to escape alleged persecution.

"The condition of all the Montagnards while in the forests was a concern from the start and naturally becomes more worrying with the passage of time," Wan-Hea Lee, the U.N.'s Office of the High Commission of Human Rights (OHCHR) representative in Cambodia, wrote in an email to RFA's Khmer Service.

"A speedy solution is urgently needed. Both the OHCHR and UNHCR [United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees] are actively pursuing discussions with the relevant authorities toward that end as soon as possible," Lee wrote in an email to RFA's Khmer Service.

About 13 of the 50 Montagnards--Christian indigenous people from Vietnam's Central Highlands--who sought refuge in Ratanakiri province remain in hiding there.

Cambodian authorities recently deported three dozen who had made their way to the capital Phnom Pehn to seek help from the U.N.

Last month, authorities blocked U.N. vehicles from reaching areas where the Montagnards were hiding after a team had arrived in the province.

Cambodian villagers who have been providing food and shelter to the helping the 13 Montagnards said the refugees face food shortages.

One villager, who declined to be named for security reasons, said the Montagnards were living in fear that Cambodian authorities would send them back to Vietnam.

"The refuge is no longer safe for them," he said. "They are facing food shortages and health issues in the jungle. I met them directly, and they asked that the U.N. hurry up and help them. They are not safe here."

RFA could not reach Khieu Sopheak, Cambodia's interior minister, for comment.

The ministry's refugee department determines whether asylum seekers qualify for refugee status.

But Cambodia summarily deports Montagnards, viewing them as illegal aliens rather than a minority group fleeing persecution in Vietnam.

Am Sam Ath, senior investor for the national rights group Licadho, said the Cambodian government had a duty to rescue the Montagnards so they could seek asylum in the country.

"They are facing rights and religious prosecutions," he said, condemning the government for the recent deportation of the 36 Montagnards, saying it did not comply with refugee conventions to which Cambodia is a party.

"The government shouldn't use immigration law to deal with refugees," he said.

Below is an article published by the The Phnom Penh Post:

Four of the 36 Jarai Montagnards deported last month have “disappeared” from their village in Vietnam’s central highlands, prompting fears among villagers that they may have been detained by the authorities.

The group of 36 Montagnards was deported on the night of February 24 after attempting to travel from Ratanakkiri to Phnom Penh in order to seek asylum.

Thirteen other Montagnards from Vietnam remain in hiding in the province, and reports from local villagers suggest their condition continues to worsen.

An ethnic Jarai, who has been assisting the Montagnards and requested anonymity, said that he did not know if the four missing Jarais had been detained.

“We contacted our network in Vietnam, and they said that the four have disappeared,” he said.

“We do not know whether they were arrested like they were before. But other people [in the same group] have been summonsed for questioning by the Vietnamese authorities about their attempt to escape to Cambodia,” he added.

A spokesman for the Vietnamese Embassy could not be reached yesterday.

The four Montagnards, all male, were identified as Keupak Hamann, Ro Mos Hann, Sev Kvet and Zar.

General Khieu Sopheak, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, said that if the Vietnamese had detained the four, it was “their business”, adding that they had been deported as illegal immigrants.

“It’s not only these 36 people,” he said. “We have sent back hundreds or even thousands of illegal Vietnamese people.”

Villagers in Ratanakkiri province yesterday (10th March 2015) told the Post that the situation for 13 other Montagnards hiding from the authorities, who have deployed armed security forces and dogs in their search for the asylum seekers, was growing worse, as food and water supplies were dwindling.

Wan-Hea Lee, country director of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), yesterday said that it had no reliable information about the missing Montagnards.

“The condition of all the Montagnards while in the forests was a concern from the start, and naturally becomes more worrying with the passage of time. A speedy solution is urgently needed,” she added.

In Phnom Penh, the Interior Ministry’s refugee department announced that 13 Montagnards who were escorted to the capital by UN monitors in December had officially been recognised as refugees after they were initially approved earlier this month.

Photo courtesy RFA