2021 Statelessness & Citizenship Review 3(2) 70,000 were classified as ‘old settlers’. 34 While these numbers may not capture all ethnic Vietnamese living in Cambodia, they provide an estimate of the numbers of those not recognised as Cambodian nationals, including among long-term resident populations. Subsequently, and for the first time, in 2019 Cambodia reported to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees a figure of 57,444 individuals that fall under the organisation’s statelessness mandate. 35 Nevertheless, while numbers have become less controversial in recent years, questions remain about the quality of data and the appropriateness of categorisations. RELOCATIONS AND EMIGRATION Around the Tonle Sap Lake, authorities have been taking measures to relocate floating villages onto the land, citing environmental and other regulatory reasons. 36 Kampong Chhnang province was the first to implement relocations for more than 10,000 people, affecting Vietnamese and other communities alike. 37 However, the conditions of the relocation sites differ markedly between Vietnamese and non-Vietnamese groups. In 2019, the UN Special Rapporteur visited some of these sites and expressed great concern about housing and sanitation conditions for Vietnamese families. 38 In June 2021, Phnom Penh authorities similarly ordered with little notice the removal of all floating houses on rivers surrounding the capital, affecting some 1,300 mostly Vietnamese households. 39 Apart from disrupting the livelihood of traditional fishing communities, these relocations have highlighted the precarious legal status of relocated Vietnamese residents, as they cannot own the land at relocation sites. 40 The combined effects of Government registration, document revocation, decreasing fish stocks in the Tonle Sap and forced relocations have increased a feeling of insecurity among affected communities. Thousands of Vietnamese in Kampong Chhnang and other provinces have left for Vietnam in search of better living conditions. 41 Many will see Vietnam for the first time. Information about 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Cambodia: Comments by the State, UN Doc A/HRC/39/73/Add.2 (11 September 2018) 23. Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2019 (UNHCR Report, 2020) 72. Rhona Smith, ‘Relocating Floating Communities in Cambodia: Kampong Chhnang’ (2021) 43(2) Human Rights Quarterly 290. ibid 295. Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Cambodia, UN Doc A/HRC/42/60 (27 August 2019) [40]–[43]. Samoeun Nicseybon and Danielle Keeton-Olsen, ‘Floating Communities, Many Vietnamese, Uprooted by Phnom Penh Evictions’, VOD (online, 11 June 2021) <https://vodenglish.news/floating-communities-many-vietnamese-uprooted-by-phnompenh-evictions/>; ‘More than 1,300 Floating Houses on Tonle Sap River Dismantled’, Khmer Times (online, 16 June 2021) <https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50875141/more-than-1300floating-houses-on-tonle-sap-river-dismantled/>. Rina Chandran ‘No Room on Water, No Home on Land For Cambodia’s Ethnic Vietnamese’, Reuters (online, 27 June 2019) <https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cambodia-landrightsrefugees/no-room-on-water-no-home-on-land-for-cambodias-ethnic-vietnameseidUSKCN1TS03L>. Author’s and MIRO’s observations from field visits conducted between 2015–19. 352