U.S Deports 36 Cambodians Involved in Crime

Phnom Penh– According to the Ministry of the Interior’s (MoI) spokesperson Khieu Sopheak, the US government will be repatriating 36 Cambodians after having found them guilty of repeatedly committing crimes.

“Those 36 people do not yet have US citizenship. They were imprisoned for committing crimes before, and continued to do so; therefore, the US government has decided to send them back to Cambodia,” said MoI’s spokesman Thursday morning.

“The United States is set to deport 46 offenders, only 36 are Cambodians, while the other 10 are Laotians and other nationalities,” he added.

Khieu Sopheak, however, did not give specific date of their deportations, except saying “soon.”

The Cambodian government and the US government signed an agreement in 2002 to deport and receive Cambodian criminals residing in the U.S. Since 2002, the US government has sent more than 500 Cambodians back home.

For those Cambodians criminals, the government helps them reunite with their families in Cambodia, and if they do not have a family, they will be assisted by an organization based in Cambodia.