Ethnic Vietnamese not in school: study

By Kevin Ponniah, The Phnom Penh Post

Only nine per cent of ethnic Vietnamese children in communities of almost 5,000 people in Kampong Chhnang province attend state schools due to a lack of birth certificates, a new report has found, with researchers saying that their findings reflect a situation that is all too common in the Kingdom.

Vietnam birth certificate. Photo from Online Language Translator.

According to Limbo on Earth: The Situation of Stateless Ethnic Vietnamese in Cambodia. A Case Study from Kampong Chhnang, released yesterday by the Minority Rights Organization (MIRO), interviews with community leaders, residents and local officials at two floating villages in Phsar Chhnang commune found that 90 per cent of ethnic Vietnamese living there possess no birth certificates, family books or ID cards.

Despite all villagers having been born in Cambodia and not possessing any Vietnamese identification, the vast majority of the 931 families have “only … immigration cards and resident papers to prove that their residence in Cambodia is legal”, the report says, with citizenship out of reach for those who can’t afford to bribe officials.

According to MIRO, just nine per cent of more than 2,000 ethnic Vietnamese children living in the villages attend state schools due to a combination of “overwhelming poverty” and because a birth certificate is required for school enrolment.

“This is the most important issue for the Cambodian government to address.… All children should be able to go to school. They should provide birth certificates for all of them,” said MIRO director Ang Chanrith.

A Jesuit Refugee Service report released last year found that the lack of legal clarity for laws governing access to citizenship has left many ethnic Vietnamese in Cambodia at risk of statelessness.

Read the full article by Kevin Ponniah from The Phnom Penh Post.