15 September, 2017
It came a day after Hun Sen announced his country would stop cooperating with a USA defense department program to recover the remains of Vietnam war-era soldiers missing in action.
In April, Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen said Cambodia did not cancel a deportation agreement with the United States, which was signed in 2012, but asked the U.S. to amend the agreement to allow Cambodians convicted of felonies to stay in the USA after serving their prison sentence. As part of a general crackdown on critics ahead of next year's general election, Cambodian authorities recently arrested the head of the main opposition party, the Cambodia National Rescue Party, and accused the United States of colluding with him to overthrow the government.
Hun Sen said the suspension will be lifted after Cambodia-US ties are restored.
Hun Sen said Cambodia's help in finding the remains of more than 40 United States soldiers missing since the Vietnam War depended on Washington addressing the visa ban issue.
Hun Sen also said that he had ordered an investigation into whether any Americans had been involved with opposition leader Kem Sokha.
The U.S. government lists 48 Americans still unaccounted for in Cambodia.
Speaking to RFA's Khmer Service, Soeung Senkarona-a senior investigation official for the Cambodia-based ADHOC rights group-said that Cambodians living in the United States should be careful not to break US laws., as they could then be forced home.
The American embassy in Phnom Penh stopped issuing certain visas on Wednesday as Cambodia fails to take back its citizens being deported from the U.S.
Hun Sen said the policy of deporting them back to Cambodia "break them up as families, as parents and children, and it's an inhumane (situation) in which some have committed suicide".
On a separate issue, Cambodia's Foreign Affairs Ministry said it would accept deportees from the United States.
The restrictions apply under Section 243 (d) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which says that "due to a particular country's refusal to accept or unreasonably delay the return of its nationals, the Secretary of State must order consular officers to suspend issuing visas until informed by the Secretary of Homeland Security that the country in question has accepted the individuals", as per the embassy's official notice. The ministry also called linkage of the two issues "unreasonable".
The statement released by the Foreign Ministry said visa restrictions are the sovereign rights of the USA government.
