194 illegal aliens nabbed
The Immigration Bureau yesterday detained 194 aliens, including 150 Lao Hmong hiding in the Kingdom while waiting for political asylum in third countries.
The group of 194 Hmong and Vietnamese migrants were arrested in an Immigration Police raid on wooden shacks in a slum in Bang Sue.All those detained hold the United Nations documents declaring them "persons of concern" awaiting resettlement in third countries, said Pol Colonel Withoon Lekhawanich, superintendent of Division Two of the Immigration Bureau. However, the bureau has contacted the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to verify their legal status as the UN has not informed Thai authorities of the existence of a group under its protection in Bangkok, he said. "We don't know whether their documents are genuine and, if so, why the UN did not notify us of its protection," Withoon told reporters. An official at the Lao Embassy said the Immigration Bureau had also contacted the Lao authorities about deporting the group to Laos.
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