Khmer Krom ethnic group denied many rights: report
While Cambodia in theory offers full citizenship to members of its Khmer Krom minority, in practise, many members of the community remain in a legal shadowland, unable to access a wide range of rights, a new report released yesterday shows. Despite a professed open-door policy to the ethnic Khmer group from Vietnam, an estimated 20 to 30 percent still lack identity cards, a fact that prevents them from voting and accessing employment. The research, conducted by the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, the Alliance for Conflict Transformation and Khmer Kampuchea Krom for Human Rights and Development Association, focused on those without IDs, collecting answers from 264 respondents. Khmer Krom are indigenous Khmer who live mostly in the southwest of Cambodia’s eastern neighbour. Estimates of their presence in Cambodia fluctuate wildly, with some groups claiming 1.2 million live in Cambodia and others saying there are as few as 80,000.
