Submitted by Holly Bradford, Founder Korsang, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Jan 23, 2008 02:45

As someone who has been living with and working with Khmer deportees for over 4 years I have seen up close and personally the devestating effects deportation can have on the victims of such crule and unjust policies.

Mark my words, this new agreement between the US and Vietnam will open up the deportation of Vietnamese refugees who came to the US as children, have permanent status as American citizens and have committed crimes similar to the Khmer (Cambodian) deportees.

As of this moment this policy will affect only undocumented Vietnamese who entered the states after 1995. But we all know, and have all seen, how fast such policies can become broad, sweeping, human rights violation nets, picking up so many more catagories of people as time goes on.

This is extremely bad news for the kids from Vietnam (not to mention their families, partners and children) and there are a lot more of them than the Khmer American guys. Korsang, a project in Cambodia was created to offer training and employment to returnees in the field of HIV Prevention and Harm Reduction, has been waiting for this to happen for years. When the Vietnamese boyz from the states, who entered as political refugees, are deported back to Vietnam the Korsang staff has vowed to attempt to help them set up a sister program to Korsang over there.

Holly Bradford, Founder Korsang

www.korsangkhmer.org

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