A deaf Cambodian man is slated to be repatriated from China today after being picked up on the street by authorities there, a Foreign Ministry official said yesterday.

According to Koy Kuong, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Chhay Krin, 25, of Prey Veng province was arrested for vagrancy in Heilongjiang province in northern China along the Russian border.

Kuong said little was known about the man apart from his name and home province, including what he was doing in China or how he got there.

He was identified only when a Cambodian living in China, who recognised him from the street and knew him to be Cambodian, told him to write down his name.

“He cannot hear or speak; that’s why we do not know if he was trafficked or mistreated. Chinese police arrested him on the street, but a Cambodian student there told him to write his name or identity to confirm that he really is a Cambodian man,” he said.

Krin is scheduled to arrive in Siem Reap at midnight on Saturday morning. From there he will be sent on to his hometown in Prey Veng.