More than 20,000 Cambodians remain displaced along the border with Thailand following last year’s clashes, a UN expert said, urging both sides to resolve the crisis.
A long-standing border dispute erupted into fighting in July and December, killing dozens of people. Thailand and Cambodia agreed to a ceasefire in December, but they have repeatedly accused each other of truce violations.
“International law is very clear that those who have been displaced in a situation like this conflict have the right to go home,” Tom Andrews, the newly appointed UN special rapporteur on human rights in Cambodia, said in an interview.
In a statement after his visit to the border, Andrews said 650,000 Cambodian civilians were displaced by the end of 2025 and 20,000 still were.
Some towns and villages were now occupied by Thai soldiers, he said, while barbed wire and barriers blocked people from returning home.
“This crisis has to be addressed as quickly as possible because of the human suffering involved,” he said.
Bangkok insists it has merely reclaimed Thai land that Cambodians had been occupying. — AFP
