Veterans' group receives US$800,000 contract to help Cambodian deportees

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) - The U.S. government has awarded a
US$800,000 (euro663,000) contract to a U.S. veterans' group to run a
program that helps Cambodians deported from the United States adapt to
life in their homeland, the American Embassy said Monday.

The Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation will run the three-year
program, which will help deportees obtain key identification documents
and provide counseling and case management, the embassy said in a
statement.

A 1996 U.S. federal law mandates deportation for all non-citizens who
have ever been sentenced to a year in prison.

In March 2002, Cambodia agreed to accept its nationals marked for
deportation, including some who escaped the country as children during
the rule of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime in the late 1970s.

"Almost all the returnees were forced out of Cambodia during the
20-year civil conflict. They are examples of the consequences of the
war and are in critical need of assistance integrating in their former
homeland," Larrie Warren of the veterans' foundation said in the
statement.

"In fact, many of these returnees spent a lifetime growing up outside
Cambodia and need our assistance integrating into a land they know
little or nothing about," Warren said.

On the Net:

Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation: http://www.vvaf.org/


09/26/05 05:58 EDT


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