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Apichart Weerawong/AP
A Hmong refugee and her daughter wait
for their turn to see the doctor at a
makeshift hospital.
A Hmong refugee and her daughter wait
for their turn to see the doctor at a
makeshift hospital.
Thailand Sends Hmong, Former U.S. Allies, Back Home to Laos
July 29, 2008 01:15 PM
by
findingDulcinea Staff
Human rights groups are criticizing the Thai government for repatriating 800 Hmong refugees back to Laos, where they may face persecution.
30-Second Summary
On June 20, about 5,000 ethnic Hmong refugees left the Huay nam Khao camp in Petchabun province, Thailand, intending to walk to Bangkok on World Refugee Day to protest a decision by the Thai and Lao governments to send them back to Laos. The refugees were blocked on the road by Thai authorities, and the repatriations occured shortly afterward.
Thailand claims that the refugees volunteered to go back, but the aid agency Doctors Without Borders challenged the claim in June, saying that they were forced to return to Laos.
Thailand has long been the home of Hmong refugees avoiding persecution by the Laotian government for aiding the U.S. Army’s covert operations, or its “secret war,” in the region during the Vietnam War.
“While it should be remembered that few countries have had to deal with the kind of refugee pressures Thailand has for so long … repatriation should only be an option after an arrangement has been worked out between the Thai and Lao governments and the UNHCR to allow for monitoring of the situation,” writes the Bangkok Post.
The U.S. government says that it will continue to urge the Thai government not to forcibly return any refugees who have reasonable fear of being persecuted in Laos.
Last year, The New York Times reported that Hmong soldiers—former allies of the United States—are still hiding from authorities in the Laotian jungles.
“If I surrender, I will be punished,” said Xang Yang, 58. “They will never forgive me. I cannot live outside the jungle because I am a former American soldier.”
Thailand claims that the refugees volunteered to go back, but the aid agency Doctors Without Borders challenged the claim in June, saying that they were forced to return to Laos.
Thailand has long been the home of Hmong refugees avoiding persecution by the Laotian government for aiding the U.S. Army’s covert operations, or its “secret war,” in the region during the Vietnam War.
“While it should be remembered that few countries have had to deal with the kind of refugee pressures Thailand has for so long … repatriation should only be an option after an arrangement has been worked out between the Thai and Lao governments and the UNHCR to allow for monitoring of the situation,” writes the Bangkok Post.
The U.S. government says that it will continue to urge the Thai government not to forcibly return any refugees who have reasonable fear of being persecuted in Laos.
Last year, The New York Times reported that Hmong soldiers—former allies of the United States—are still hiding from authorities in the Laotian jungles.
“If I surrender, I will be punished,” said Xang Yang, 58. “They will never forgive me. I cannot live outside the jungle because I am a former American soldier.”
Headline Link: ‘Aid Group Says Thailand Forced Hmong Back to Laos’
In June, the aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) challenged the Thai government’s claim that its removal of more than 800 Hmong refugees was voluntary. A Thai general had claimed earlier that about 1,200 of the 3,000 Hmong refugees who reside in Thailand had agreed to go back to Laos this year on a “voluntary basis.” Bangkok is under an agreement with Lao's communist government to return those individuals by the end of the year.
Source: Reuters
Background: ‘Old U.S. Allies, Still Hiding in Laos’
Last year, The New York Times reported that there are hundreds of Hmong veterans still hiding in the Laotian jungle four decades after the CIA recruited them to fight in covert operations against Communists during the Vietnam War. The CIA first hired the Hmong, a hill-dwelling ethnic minority, to support the Laotian government in fighting a Communist insurgency in the country in what is now known as the “secret war.” They were later used to intercept supply convoys on the Ho Chi Minh trail during the Vietnam War. Many of the Hmong, who call themselves “America’s forgotten soldiers,” feel that they were betrayed by the U.S. government when the war ended, and say that they are still under threat for siding with the United States.
Source: The New York Times
Opinion & Analysis: ‘Let UNHCR Play Major Role’
The Thai government’s decision to continue with forced repatriations “amounts to an outright refusal by the present government to commit to fundamental human rights,” writes the Bangkok Post. Eyewitness reports indicate that the refugees were blocked by riot police on the road and forced to spend the night there, while others were taken to provincial jails, and it is estimated that about 1,300 of the refugees who left the camp have not yet returned.
Source: The Bangkok Post
The U.S. government calls for an open asylum process in Thailand. Although the U.S. government has no plan to create a special refugee program for the Hmong in Thailand to resettle in the United States, it says that it is ready to take referrals from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees on a case-by-case basis.
Source: Voice of America
“Thai authorities have kept Lao Hmong in fear and uncertainty for years to pressure them into giving up their hopes of refuge in Thailand or resettlement elsewhere,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The government should end this immoral and unlawful policy, and as a first step it should account for the missing.”
Source: Human Rights Watch
Related Topics: ‘Laotian Hmong Immigrants Honour CIA “Secret War” Pilot’
More than 600 people gathered in July in Fresno, Calif., to pay their respects to Captain David Harold Kouba, who died of cancer in Las Vegas on April 24. Originally from Iowa, the former crop duster flew secret missions for the CIA and is best-known for his role in a special assignment to evacuate top Hmong leader general Vang Pao from the agency's headquarters during its "secret war" in Laos.
Source: The Guardian
Reference: Thailand
Thailand is home to more than 408,000 refugees, mostly from Burma. The figure includes about 13,000 Hmong from Laos, who are considered illegal immigrants. Refugees International says that Thailand’s record as a host country is mixed, as it has allowed refugees into the country but has not signed the UN Refugee Convention. Thailand has also been accused of abusing refugees. On September 4, 2007, Thailand and Laos agreed to “repatriate” 8,000 Hmong refugees from Thailand back to Laos, despite Laos’s record of persecuting the group in their country.
Source: Refugees International
© 2009 Dulcinea Media, Inc.
