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Thailand deports Hmong to Laos despite protests
AFP - Tuesday, December 29
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Thailand deports Hmong to Laos despite protests
KHEK NOI, Thailand (AFP) - – The Thai army on Monday rounded up thousands of ethnic Hmong asylum-seekers and began returning them to communist Laos despite international protests over fears they could face persecution.
A force of 5,000 armed with batons and shields entered the camp in Huay Nam Khao village in northern Thailand before dawn to load the Hmong on to trucks, said Colonel Thana Charuvat, coordinator of the operation.
Thana said a total of 4,371 Hmong had all left the camp. "The operation finished in the late afternoon and those Hmong are all on their way back to Laos," he said, adding that they all would have left Thai soil by Monday night.
In Geneva, the UN refugee agency said it was "dismayed" by the expulsions and joined the United States in urging Thailand to halt the operation.
The Hmong were seeking asylum in Thailand claiming they face persecution by the Laotian regime for fighting alongside US forces during the Vietnam War, and the issue has long been a sticking point between the two neighbours. Related article: Expelled Hmong's decades-long neglect
"I call upon the Thai Government to halt the forced return of the Lao Hmong, some of whom have international protection needs," the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres in a statement.
Thana said the operation went smoothly but a member of Human Rights Watch said a number of people had resisted, although no violence was reported.
"There are 130 'leaders' and their 'bodyguards' who resisted the repatriation. They are detained on police mobile prison trucks and will be handed over directly to the Lao military." said HRW's Thailand analyst Sunai Phasuk, citing army sources.
The first eight vehicles carrying the Hmong crossed into Laos from northeastern Thailand at 6.20 pm (1120 GMT), an army official near the border told AFP.
The media were not allowed beyond an army centre in Khek Noi village, about 12 kilometres (seven miles) from the camp in Phetchabun province, to witness the clearing. Premier Abhisit Vejjajiva said it was "going well".
Thailand says the Hmong are illegal economic immigrants, but has come under fire from the international community for refusing to grant the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) access to them to assess whether any are political refugees.
"We deeply regret this serious violation of the international humanitarian principles that Thailand has long been known for championing," US State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said in a statement.
The European Union also issued a statement saying it was "deeply dismayed" by the deportations.
Afte their removal from the camp, the Hmong were taken through an army camp in Phetchabun and an immigration centre in the border town of Nong Khai before entering Laos.
Thailand promised the Lao government that the Hmong would be sent back by the end of the year and says Laos has assured it that the group will be safe after returning.
But diplomats and rights groups have said several hundred Hmong could have valid fears of persecution and as such should not be forcibly returned.
Amnesty International said last week that it knew of "people who have already been sent back who have been tortured or are missing," in Laos, according to the deputy Asia-Pacific director Donna Guest. Related article: US 'deeply' regrets Hmong deportation
"It seems difficult to imagine there will be fully fledged international access to the Hmong community on arrival, given the past experiences of repatriation," a Western diplomat in Bangkok added.
Laotian foreign ministry spokesman Khenthong Nuanthasing said the returnees are due to be sent to the central province of Bolikhamsay and placed in temporary shelters.
"We must first determine where they want to go," he said.
The EU and UNHCR also expressed fears for a separate group of 158 Hmong who have been held in a detention centre in Nong Khai for three years, which the Thai government has said it also plans to send back to Laos.
Unlike the thousands leaving Phetchabun, all members of this group have been officially screened by the United Nations and granted refugee status, but Thailand has refused to let them resettle in third countries.
The EU said it "considers that their involuntary deportation by the Thai authorities would constitute a serious violation of the customary international law principle of non-refoulement (no forced return) of refugees".
However diplomats in Bangkok told AFP they understood that the repatriation of these Hmong refugees would go ahead on Tuesday.
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