The United States and the United Nations yesterday expressed concern over the well-being of about 6,000 Hmong refugees from Laos being sheltered in Phetchabun province but would not take them into the pipeline of the current resettlement programme.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said after a serious discussion on the plight of the Hmong which assessed that they were "in a precarious humanitarian situation".

The visiting US Assistant Secretary of State Ellen Sauerbrey urged the Thai government not to forcibly deport them and leave them open to prosecution.

Phetchabun authorities recently deported a number of the refugees to Laos and their fate and whereabouts are unknown.

"No government should forcibly return people to a situation in which they suffer prosecution, perhaps torture," she said.

Guterres and Sauerbrey visited Thailand this week to assess refugees who have sought shelter along Thai borders for years. They discussed the issue with a number of senior Thai officials including caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and Deputy Prime Minister Chidchai Wanasatidya.

The US has taken the first of 2,700 Karen refugees from Ratchaburi's Tham Hin camp where about 9,500 refugees have been sheltering from the conflict in Burma for years.

"At this point, we don't have the Hmong as a population in our current resettlement plan. However, we are certainly concerned about the well-being of the Hmong people," Sauerbrey told a press briefing yesterday.

Most of the Hmong sheltered in Phetchabun's Ban Huay Nam Khao since late 2004 claimed they fought for the US Central Intelligence Agency during its "secret war" against the communist Pathet Lao in the 1970s. They later fled from political oppression at home.

Thailand and Laos recently reached a common assessment that the refugees are

victims of human traffickers who lured them to Thailand in the hope of resettlement in the US.

Sauerbrey suggested the Thai government make a distinction between refugees and economic migrants which might require the assistance of international organisations such as the UNHCR to access the areas to determine who has legitimate protection claims.

Guterres said the UN would provide assistance to protect the group.

Supalak Ganjanakhundee

The Nation