31 Hmong refugees secretly repatriated to Laos, more may follow suit soon
Local officials in northern Phetchabun province have quietly deported 31 out of 240 detained ethnic Hmong back to Laos, Thai and Lao officials said yesterday.
But the return of the Hmong - likely to have been seeking refugee status - has not been acknowledged by authorities in Vientiane, they said. The group, previously detained at Lom Kao district police station, was repatriated early on Tuesday via Chiang Khong, a town on the Mekong river across from Laos' northern Bo Keo province. A total of 231 Hmong who claimed they fled from suppression in Laos were arrested in June for illegal entry as they tried to join a group of about 6,000 Hmong refugees camped in Khao Kho district's Ban Huay Nam Khao. The 231 were split up and held in six police district stations in Phetchabun because cells at Khao Kho district police station were unable to take them all. The group increased in size to 240 due to women giving birth in recent weeks while in detention. The cells at Lom Khao police station are now empty, an officer at the station said. The authorities are preparing to deport the remaining Hmong being held in Nong Phai, Na Cha Liang, Muang Phetchabun, Lom Sak and Khao Kho, police said. The deportations were done without notifying Lao authorities, an official at the Lao Embassy in Bangkok said. Thailand has sheltered about 6,000 Hmong refugees in Ban Huay Nam Khao since late 2004. A recent survey conducted by the military (Third Army Region) found that more than 4,000 out of 6,058 Hmong at Phetchabun had come from Laos. The rest were long-term residents who drifted north following the closure last year of Wat Tham Krabok refugee camp in Saraburi. Most of the Hmong from Laos claimed they had fought for the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) during its "secret war" against the communist Pathet Lao in the 1970s. But a military official who conducted the survey said only about 100 people could be identified - from their documents - as CIA fighters. Bangkok still has no clear policy to deal with the Hmong refugees because Vientiane has said it is unwilling to take them back. A chance for resettlement in third countries has remained largely elusive, with the US having said last year it would not to take any more Hmong beyond the 15,000 it resettled when Tham Krabok camp was closed. Supalak Ganjanakhundee The Nation
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