An Indian woman recently took to social media to share her nightmarish experience while travelling solo from Vietnam to Cambodia. Taking to Instagram, Nida Merchant from Delhi shared a video claiming that she was denied entry into Cambodia from Vietnam, despite having a visa. She alleged that immigration officials in Cambodia mistreated her to the point where she felt physically unsafe. She said that authorities kept laughing at her and insisted that she accompany them on a bike if she wanted to enter the country. Ms Merchant claimed that they also told her that Indians and Bangladeshis could be refused entry at land borders.
"I cut my trip short and came back directly from Vietnam after being denied entry into Cambodia for racist reasons. RUMOR has it they do it a lot but guess what ITS NOT A RUMOR," Ms Merchant wrote in the caption of her post.
"A shady official tried to lock up my suitcase and get me jump onto a bike with him if I wanted to get into Cambodia. My suitcase was broken and I was scared of what they were planning on doing with me, as I was travelling alone!" she recalled.
The woman further said that the whole experience left a "bad taste in my mouth". "I literally turned back got the last ferry out of Ha Tien back to Phu Quoc and flew back to Ho Chi Minh so I could fly back home safely on the 4th of Jan! This is for other people, back packers, tourist, etc travelling to Cambodia, they have a list of Countries, India, Nepal, etc that don't get entry into the country," she wrote.
Ms Merchant claimed that on her way back to the ferry, she was also informed by her taxi driver that Indians hadn't been allowed to cross that particular border for months.
Mr Merchant shared the clip earlier this month. Since then, it has garnered more than 900,000 views. In the comments section, users agreed with her and shared their own experiences of facing racism in Cambodian ports and airports.
"Land border of Cambodia and Vietnam had many such incidents of scam ! Glad that you are safe!!" wrote one user. "Exactly the same happened with me. They were asking for a bribe directly on my face but I denied. Instead they asked for bank proof which I had with me. In the end it was all smooth. Indians who want to enter Cambodia must be prepared for the worst case scenario," shared another.
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"I had a dual entry visa to Thailand, which I got stamped in my passport prior to my Thailand-Cambodia-back to Thailand trip in 2018. Yet, as the bus crossed via the Thailand-Cambodia border, it was the Thai immigration officials who asked me show PRINTOUTS of my hotel stay in Bangkok. I had the hotel reservations on my phone but that wasn't good enough apparently. And I had to go back, find an internet cafe (yeah, in 2018) or some place to take printouts! I managed to do that, and was eventually allowed through but just because of me, the entire bus (I was the only Indian) was held up," commented a third user.
However, some users pointed out that a Cambodian e-visa did not guarantee Indians entry from waterway ports, especially if they were not e-visa ports.
"You showed an e-Visa in the video and it clearly mentions that you're only allowed to enter through valid e-Visa ports and there isn't one around the Ha-Tien border. If you faced harassment that's wrong but I think you were simply denied entry because of that," commented one user.
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