In November 2014, 13 Degar-Montagnards fled Vietnam, scared away by the religious persecutions ongoing in the country, which followed the discriminations and the confiscation of ancestral land that the community was subject to in the past few decades. After hiding in the jungle of Cambodia for a month, the displaced Montagnards met a UN team in December 2014. The organization found the refugees in very poor health conditions and arranged their transfer to Phnom Penh, where they will apply for asylum.

On Friday 31 July 2015, 14 indigenous Christian Montagnards were repatriated to Vietnam after requesting assistance from Cambodian officials. Following claims of political and religious persecution in their home country of Vietnam, the group of Montagnards fled to Thailand through Laos. Unable to find jobs and facing severe financial hardship there, the group has requested assistance from Cambodia, where they are considered to be “illegal”, in the hope of returning to Vietnam. A report released last month by Human Rights Watch demonstrates in detail how Montagnards in Vietnam are subject to surveillance, intimidation, arbitrary arrest and mistreatment in custody.  

The United Nations has announced that 36 Degar-Montagnards who were escaping religious and political persecution and seeking refugee status in Cambodia have been deported and handed over to authorities in Vietnam. Moreover, Cambodian security forces have repeatedly been hindering UN staff from getting in contact with the asylum seekers.