18,650 Cambodians Still Displaced by Thai Occupation, Interior Ministry Says

PHNOM PENH, September 14, 2026 – More than 18,650 Cambodians, including over 9,400 women and 6,000 children, remain unable to return to their homes due to continued Thai military occupation of civilian areas, according to a Ministry of Interior update released Monday.

The Ministry stated that Thailand has not fully and faithfully implemented its ceasefire obligations since the agreement came into effect on December 27, 2025. Out of more than 640,000 people displaced during the conflict, the 18,650 still stranded are prevented from returning by Thai forces occupying their villages and destroying homes and property after the ceasefire. The Ministry emphasized that this obstruction is not an unintended consequence of conflict, but the direct result of unlawful occupation, constituting serious violations of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, which prohibit the forcible displacement of civilians from occupied territory.

Preliminary assessments also document widespread destruction to civilian infrastructure. Damage to private property includes more than 1,500 houses, 10 hotels and apartment buildings, four gas stations, 34 vehicles, 39 cell towers, and six water supply facilities. Public property damage includes 26 schools, 14 hospitals and health centres, 74 government administrative buildings, 19 pagodas, five bridges, 87 road sections, and four ancient temples, in violation of the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property. The continued closure of 15 schools and seven health facilities across Oddar Meanchey, Banteay Meanchey, and Preah Vihear provinces has deprived children and citizens of education and essential healthcare.

In a related development, the Ministry expressed strong support for the commencement of the first meeting of the Conciliation Commission under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) between Cambodia and Thailand. The meeting is taking place from September 14 to 16, 2026, in Singapore under the leadership of Chair Ms. Katrina Cooper. The Ministry expressed hope that the talks will proceed smoothly and pave the way toward a peaceful resolution of the maritime boundary dispute in accordance with international law.

On the land boundary dispute, the Ministry reiterated the legal principle that as long as an unlawful occupier is continuously protested against by the rightful territorial sovereign, the occupier cannot acquire definitive title to the territory, and the sovereign does not forfeit its rights through the passage of time. Cambodia reaffirmed its absolute non-recognition of any unilateral alteration of boundary lines or any alteration through the use of force, whether in the past, present, or future.

The Ministry appealed to Thailand to demonstrate genuine goodwill in fully implementing the Joint Statement of the Special General Border Committee Meeting of December 27, 2025, and urged a return to accelerating the survey and demarcation work of the Joint Boundary Commission. It called for this work to be based on the Franco-Siamese maps and treaties, as well as mutually agreed official documents, in order to permanently establish a border of peace, cooperation, and development.

— Source: Ministry of Interior of the Kingdom of Cambodia
Phnom Penh, 14 September 2026


Reported by The Khmer Daily Network