Forty-two years ago, more than 1.2 million refugees fled Southeast Asia and were resettled in the United States, the largest refugee group in U.S. history. But since 1998, almost 16,000 refugees received orders of removal — 78 percent of which were based on old criminal records.
In 2015, the #Right2Return Campaign was launched collectively by the Southeast Asian Freedom Network with 1Love Movement in hopes to end the deportation of Cambodian refugees, and the separation of families. Last fall, independent producer Sahra V. Nguyen traveled with 1Love from Philadelphia to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, to meet with a task force made up of representatives of the Cambodian government. The goal for 1Love and its partners: halt deportations and renegotiate the 2002 repatriation agreement that opened the pathway for the U.S. to deport Cambodian refugees back to Cambodia.
RELATED: Forty Years After Resettlement, Thousands of Southeast Asian Refugees Face Deportation
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