Thailand To Deport More Hmong Refugees

[churchill]

Thailand To Deport More Hmong Refugees

Thai television reports claim the Thai government will deport the remaining Hmong refugee population back to Laos. There are believed to be over 400 Hmong in the Bangkok and Lop Buri areas, including almost 300 who are already recognized as refugees by the UNHCR.

Just two weeks ago, Thailand forcibly deported over 4000 Hmong refugees to Laos despite outrage from international human rights organizations, the UNHCR, the U.S. and foreign diplomatic community.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1001/S00203.htm

scoop Word 2010-01-12

and

Worries about Hmong deported from Thailand continue here

...

Several relatives of Pang Chai Yang, 52, of Stevens Point, also were part of the repatriation. Yang, who spoke through an interpreter, said he had heard late last week from a cousin who called using a cell phone. The cousin said she was being held in a camp in Laos and also reported that some of the group's men, including former soldiers, had been taken away by Lao security forces.

That's consistent with messages received by Philip Smith, the director of the Center for Public Policy Analysis in Washington, D.C. His sources from within the group, also using cell phones<!--[endif]-->, have said many men who were former soldiers have been interrogated and beaten.

"A number of them have disappeared, and their whereabouts are unknown," Smith said Friday in a telephone interview.

Smith added that he expected communication between his sources and the United States to end soon because cell

phone batteries were running low and Hmong detainees weren't allowed to recharge them.

...

http://www.wausaudailyherald.com/article/2...d-continue-here

Warsau Daily Herald 2010-01-11

[churchill]

Australia-bound refugees stranded in secret Laos camps

"The Age this week reached the main entrance of a camp where some of them are being held. Hundreds of asylum seekers, mainly women and children, stood barefoot in the dirt, behind three metres of razor wire, as loudspeakers exhorted them to move away.

But we got no further. As soon as we arrived, our car was surrounded by soldiers who demanded to know who we were and why we were there.

Members of our party were taken away and interrogated about our intentions. Officers demanded to see our passports, and our car was searched. Our cameras and mobile phones were taken and examined for any images of the camp.

After being photographed, we were forced back into the car and told we could not leave it. ''You cannot be here,'' we were told. ''No one from outside is allowed here.''

http://www.theage.com.au/national/australi...00112-m4py.html

theage.com.au 2010-01-12

[Davidusaf99]

Found it interesting that a US congressmen visiting the Hmongs in Laos, said that they were in a new village, doing fine, and none of them reported any problems associated with past political status.

[caf]

Found it interesting that a US congressmen visiting the Hmongs in Laos, said that they were in a new village, doing fine, and none of them reported any problems associated with past political status.

I found that interesting too. Whether true of that camp or not i do not know.

What is not being discussed, and probably can not be discussed on this thread, is the abhorrent fact that the USA having used the Hmong as their allies against communism in Vietnam , are now content to leave them to their fate.

caf

[SM7WGP]

Thats Typical for US politics, if you can not gain anything from it do not inter wen.

[Asa]

Just this morning that the US of A ambassador to Thailand lamenting of repatriation Hmong back to Laos. Said some of the displaced persons are UNHCR group of concerns, but the US are not allowed to process a resettlement interview, hence their disappointment toward Thai government. The Thai should not take neibourhood relations as a priority to humanitary agreement with the UN.

However, The US government does not have any plan to resettle them in the states, as asked by the UNHCR.

[Bagwan]

Found it interesting that a US congressmen visiting the Hmongs in Laos, said that they were in a new village, doing fine, and none of them reported any problems associated with past political status.

Some self important Thai woman politician inspected parts of Pattaya including Soi 6 a few years back. Naturally she had an escort provided by BiB. She went back to BKK to report there was no prostitution if Pattaya. Cynical? Me?

BTW the indefinite article is singular, congressmen is plural. One or more misinformed disingenuous idiots?

[infernalman7]

Ironically, the US doesn't want the Hmongs in their country either while talking crap about human rights. Guatanamo Bay? Oh wait it doesn't exist!

[BittersweetFarang]

The US is not only leaving the Hmong to their fate, they recently prosecuted Vang Pao living in California, a Vietnam war era US ally and hero among the Hmong people. Vang Pao has blocked Hmong repatriations such as what are occurring now, and perhaps this prosecution has emboldened the current moves.

If you google Vang Pao nytimes, the first link is a fascinating article about the history of Vang Pao and the Hmong resistance to the Communists during the Vietnam war. As one can imagine, repatriating people back into the hands of their (former) enemies, is terrifying.

[el jefe]

What is not being discussed, and probably can not be discussed on this thread, is the abhorrent fact that the USA having used the Hmong as their allies against communism in Vietnam , are now content to leave them to their fate.

While I disagree with the repatriation of the Hmong, what people fail to recognize is that the Hmong were fighting the Pathet Lao and their predecessors before the US used them as allies.

[churchill]

Thailand blames its critics for refugees' fate

COUNTRIES concerned for 4500 Hmong people secretly deported from Thailand should have resettled the asylum seekers while they had time, the Thai Prime Minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, has said.

Thailand has been criticised by Australia, the United Nations, the US and others for using the army to secretly ship the Hmong back to Laos, where they say they will face persecution.

Four countries, including Australia, had already agreed to take some of the asylum seekers but they are now back in Laos, where they cannot be accessed and their fate is uncertain.

But Mr Abhisit said the Laotian Government had guaranteed the asylum seekers would be well treated, and said that if the countries willing to resettle them were so concerned, they should have acted faster. Some of the asylum seekers had been living in camps on the Thai-Laotian border for more than five years.

''If these countries were serious about working on resettlement, they should have settled these people long ago,'' he told foreign journalists.

A fortnight after soldiers deported the Hmong, confusion still surrounds their fate.

Mr Abhisit said delays on the part of the proposed resettling countries - Australia, the US, Canada and the Netherlands - had kept the Hmong in detention and, ultimately, was a factor in them being deported.

''A lot of them weren't able to go because they weren't issued visas,'' he said.

But the Australian Government, which described the forced deportations as ''deeply disappointing'', has confirmed 18 of the Hmong had been granted humanitarian visas and a further 17 were being interviewed for resettlement.

Australian relatives of some of the asylum seekers given visas said the reason they had not left was because they had not received exit visas from Thailand.

The UN was granted access to only 158 of the asylum seekers and found all were refugees.

The Hmong have faced persecution in communist Laos since members of the ethnic minority fought with US troops in the Vietnam War.

But the Thai Government maintains most of the Hmong asylum seekers are economic migrants, and Mr Abhisit said those in need of protection would be moved to a third country.

''Laos is working out with the third countries that want some of these people to be resettled,'' he said.

But the Australian Government has been given no access to the repatriated Hmong, and has not been told by the Laotian Government where they are.

The Herald found the camp where the Hmong formerly bound for Australia are being held, near the Mekong River town of Paksan, in Laos.

Hundreds of asylum seekers, many of them women and children, were living in tents in the crowded camp behind razor wire fences and guarded by soldiers.

The Laotian Government said in recent days the repatriated Hmong had wanted to go back to Laos, and wished to stay there.

But the US ambassador to Thailand, Eric John, said: ''All the refugees we interviewed … told us … they did not wish to return to Laos, clearly indicating the return was involuntary. ''

http://www.smh.com.au/world/thailand-blame...00115-mchh.html

[Davidusaf99]

Not exactly sure what "secret" deporation they article refers to. It was reported on before, during, and after. I do wonder, why these countries didn't act as well, when they had 5 years to do so. I thought governments in those countries were more efficient than in LOS. Apparently, its easier to condemn the actions, but when asked for a hand in solving the problem, its quiet....

[animatic]

Found it interesting that a US congressmen visiting the Hmongs in Laos, said that they were in a new village, doing fine, and none of them reported any problems associated with past political status.

Some self important Thai woman politician inspected parts of Pattaya including Soi 6 a few years back. Naturally she had an escort provided by BiB. She went back to BKK to report there was no prostitution if Pattaya. Cynical? Me?

BTW the indefinite article is singular, congressmen is plural. One or more misinformed disingenuous idiots?

I have to note than there are 75,000 or so Hmong living in USA

and another 30,000 or so living in France, and 10-15,000 each in a few other euro nations,

and Guyana has a city of Hmong close to a half million by some reports,

and this from the effects of their fighting against communism they did get a pass to go.

The current mind set is that these current statistics are most all

NOT Hmong that fought back 30 years ago,

but ones just trying to get a free ride to a better land

since the Laotians hold a grudge for generations.

Is this fair to consider is for each of us to think on.

I got this from a Hmong man in his 40's who has had free

ability to go into and out of Laos as he saw fit, without constraints.

He just couldn't do his little romantic Hmong film making inside Laos,

so did it with Lao Hmong actors in Thailand. And they could travel in and out also.

Food for thought.

[churchill]

UNHCR still seeking access to deported Lao Hmong

BANGKOK, 19 January 2010 (IRIN) - The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) says it still has no access to more than 4,000 Lao Hmong deported from Thailand three weeks ago amid an international furore.

"We're still seeking access to all of the Lao Hmong who were deported in order to observe the arrangements that were made for them to settle in Laos, and also to assist with the resettlement of the 158 who were registered refugees," Kitty McKinsey, UNHCR regional spokeswoman, told IRIN

continued .. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=87784

[churchill]

Expelled Hmong Imprisoned in Laos

Around 50 Hmong refugees who were forcibly repatriated by Thailand to Laos on Dec. 28 have been imprisoned in Paksan jail, according to the Fact Finding Commission (FFC), an American based NGO.

It is suggested that the group may have been isolated because of their role as leaders in the camps and during the “secret war,” when the CIA hired the Hmong as foot soldiers to prevent the spread of communism during the Vietnam War.Using a secret network of undercover researchers called “blackbirds,” the FFC were able to get confirmation on Tuesday morning about the group’s imprisonment.“We received confirmation from our contact that around 50 leaders have been imprisoned,” said Bhou Than of the FFC.

“We are very concerned about what is happening to them and expect that more will face similar detention in the coming months.” Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Thursday, Amnesty International confirmed that one group has been separated from other returnees and expressed concern about their treatment by the Laos government.

“We are aware that some of the leaders have been separated from the group, taken out of Vientiane and remain unaccounted for,” said Benjamin Zawacki, a Bangkok-based researcher for Amnesty.

“Our primary concern for them is torture, which we know is often employed in Laos’ prisons and could be used as a punitive measure for them bringing shame to Laos or for information gathering.”

He went on to add that Thailand has not only broken refugee law by expelling the Hmong but has also gone against the UN treaty against torture, which Thailand has signed and ratified.

“Under that treaty they are obliged not to send anyone back to a country where they are at risk of torture,” he said.

In an opinion piece published in the Bangkok Post on Jan. 13, the US Ambassador to Thailand, Eric John, said the Thai authorities said they had conducted their own screening process and 800 of the Hmong refugees were identified as having protection concerns and “should not be returned involuntarily.”

However, the names of these people were never handed over to the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR) or any potential resettlement country, John said, and “the lack of transparency during the repatriation process made it impossible to determine if the return was voluntary.

“The US was disappointed at the Thai decision to deport 4,689 Laotian Hmong asylum seekers back to Laos on Dec. 28, 2009, despite clear indications that some in the group required protection,” John said.

One thousand of the refugees are reported to have been allowed to return to their villages and stay with their relatives. However, the remaining returnees are thought to be held in “camps” around Laos, according to eyewitnesses.

According to an undercover FFC researcher who recently made a clandestine trip to one of the camps in Phak Beuk, three thousand are being held there in terrible conditions.

“Our researcher went to the camp yesterday and told me that the people are only receiving small amounts of rice,” Bhou Than told The Irrawaddy.

“They aren’t being given any medicine, no clothes, no shelter, no doctors and he told us that 500 are sick with malaria…they are just living on the ground and being controlled by Lao soldiers with AK47s—we are very concerned by this news.”

According to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald on Jan. 12, reporters approached a camp at Paksan on the Mekong River, where “hundreds of Hmong hilltribes people stood barefoot in the dirt behind three metres of razor wire as loudspeakers ordered them to move away from the gate.”

“Blue tarpaulins blocked much of the view of the camp, but the tops of scores of tents could be seen in close rows. No grass or paved areas could be seen, and there appeared to be no permanent buildings,” the Herald said, adding that the reporters were escorted from the camp and told not to return.

Despite the information leaking out of Laos, the communist regime continues to claim that the refugees are being treated well.

When the Lao Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Phongsavath Boupha met with ambassadors from the European Union, US and Australia on January 15, he told them the government had provided them with food, clothing and medicines.

“The government’s long-term plan was to build a house for each family and allocate land for farming activities,” Phongsavath said, according to the Vientiane Times, a government mouthpiece.

Although the UNHCR continues to be denied access to the returnees, three US congressmen including Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao of New Orleans visited Pha Lak, a separate camp south of Paksan and reported that the Hmong were being treated well.

Human rights groups have blasted their remarks, however, as being insensitive to the returnees and claimed their trip was staged by the Laos government.

“Their visit was nothing close to human rights monitoring,” said Joe Davy, a Hmong advocate in Chicago, who spoke to The Irrawaddy by phone.

“The Laos government told the refugees what to say before they arrived. There’s no way they would speak out and criticize the government for their living conditions. They’ve already seen how powerless the US is to help them so why would they speak out now and risk their lives?”

Responding on Thursday to the criticisms, which she described as unfounded and unfair, Cao spokeswoman Princella Smith said: “Accusations that Congressman Cao is insensitive to the needs of refugees or is somehow insensitive to victims of government abuse and persecution are not only wrong but absurd.”

Although most refugees came from Huay Nam Khao camp, one group of major concern for the UNHCR consists of 158 returnees (including 87 children) who, until they were sent back, were being held at an immigration detention center in Nong Khai on the border with Laos.

US Ambassador John said the refugees, who were detained for more than three years in the center, had been screened by the UNHCR prior to their detention and determined to have refugee status and were recognized as “Persons of Concern.”

The US was financing the care of the refugees while they were in detention in Thailand, John said, and the US and other countries were prepared to consider appropriate cases for resettlement in third countries.

“All the refugees we interviewed in Nong Khai told us on Dec. 28 that the did not wish to return to Laos, clearly indicating the return was involuntary,” John said.

http://democracyforburma.wordpress.com/201...isoned-in-laos/