During the visit, the delegation went to several localities in the Central Highlands and separately met with a number of ethnic minority Central Highlanders who were repatriated from Cambodia. The delegation also met with Chairman of the Gia Lai provincial People’s Committee Pham The Dzung and held talks with Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Phu Binh.

At the talks, the two sides reviewed the implementation of a tripartite Vietnam-UNHCR-Cambodia Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on resolving the issue of the illegal crossing of the border into Cambodia by ethnic minority people from the Central Highlands.

They discussed measures to more effectively implement the MoU and address arising issues. To date, 95.2 percent of 750 ethnic minority Central Highlanders, have been repatriated to Vietnam from Cambodia.

They also discussed the possibility of co-operation in resolving the issue of people without having Vietnamese nationality and Vietnamese women marrying foreigners without adopting nationality.

In her recent tour of the Central Highlands, Ms Feller praised local authorities for promoting socio-economic development in the region and helping returnees re-integrate into the community. She also spoke highly of the Vietnamese Government and local administrations’ efforts to create favorable conditions for the UNHCR to visit the Central Highlands and returnees after the MoU was signed.