Bangkok agrees to give details of Hmong to Laos
Thailand yesterday agreed to provide Laos with detailed information on the 8,000 Hmong migrants who are now being sheltered in Phetchabun and the 150 currently being held in Bangkok, a step prior to deportation.
Vientiane agreed to take the Hmong back if information provided by Thailand clearly indicated they were Lao citizens, said Lao Deputy Chief of Staff Brig-General Buaxiang Champaphanh.Buaxiang was in Thailand for a meeting of the Joint Boundary Sub-committee, of which the Hmong issue was a major topic. There might be Hmong from Laos who were lured by human traffickers believing they had a chance to settle in third countries, the Lao officer told reporters. They are not refugees seeking political asylum as claimed, he added. Thailand shelters some 8,000 Hmong who claim they were associated with the CIA's secret war in the 1960s-70s. Around 150 Hmong who escaped from the shelter in Phetchabun's Ban Huay Nam Khao are being held in the Immigration Bureau's detention centre in Bangkok. Thailand has already handed details of the identity of the 150 Hmong to Laos and is ready to deport them as soon as Vientiane confirms they are Lao nationals, according to Lt-General Niphon Thonglek, chief of the Border Affairs Department, who co-chaired the meeting with Buaxiang yesterday. Meanwhile, officials from the United Nations refugee agency were involved in urgent talks in Bangkok yesterday to try to prevent the deportation of 152 Hmong back to Laos. A spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said they believed the Hmong would be at "serious risk of persecution or loss of life" if returned to Laos. The Nation Udon Thani
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