Cambodia has denied allegations that its authorities detained two democracy activists and helped transfer them to Vietnam after they disappeared during a visit to Cambodia.
The denial follows reporting by Australia’s ABC and growing concern from international lawyers and human rights groups.
The two are Australian citizen Tran Hiep, also known as Ho Pham Hiep Huy, 50, and Norwegian citizen Nguyen Duc Thuan, 52. Both are of Vietnamese origin.
Cambodia’s interior ministry says the two arrived from Thailand at Techo International Airport on September 15, 2026. It says immigration records show no official departure from Cambodia.
The ministry received a request from the Australian embassy to help locate Tran Hiep on September 22, 2026. That same day, it learned that Nguyen Duc Thuan had been out of contact with family since September 18, 2026.
According to information the ministry received from Vietnamese police, the two were detained on September 18, 2026, at the My Quy Tay border post in Vietnam’s Tay Ninh province, alongside a Vietnamese man.
Vietnamese authorities accuse the three of entering the country illegally and belonging to Viet Tan, a democracy movement that Hanoi designates as a terrorist organisation.
Cambodia’s interior ministry firmly rejected allegations that Cambodian officials helped arrest or transfer the two activists.
“The competent authorities of the Kingdom of Cambodia did not arrest and hand over these individuals to the Vietnamese authorities,” the ministry said.
But an international network of lawyers has challenged that account.
In a joint statement on October 5, 2026, the lawyers condemned what they described as the activists’ abduction and forced transfer to Vietnam.
They alleged that the two were seized while travelling through Cambodia on September 18, 2026, and subsequently taken across the border.
The lawyers called on the United Nations and its Human Rights Council to examine the case. They also urged Cambodia to conduct an independent and impartial investigation into allegations of enforced disappearance and forced transfer.
Civil society groups and United Nations human rights experts have raised broader concerns about cooperation between Vietnam and neighbouring governments to target democracy and human rights activists abroad.
Phil Robertson, director of Asia Human Rights & Labour Advocates, said Vietnam’s confirmation that it was holding the two men reflected what Phil Robertson described as a regional pattern of repression across borders.
The circumstances of their transfer remain disputed. A central question is how the two travelled from Cambodia to Vietnam when Cambodian immigration records show no official departure.