Hmong refugees starve to resist deportation
Wednesday, 22 August 2007
Marwaan Macan-Marka from Bangkok
By going on a hunger strike, some 150 ethnic Hmong refugees in Thailand have turned the heat on Bangkok to respect their rights and treat them with compassion.
''They decided to starve themselves and die in prison due to the fact that they have been tortured for the last eight months without a date to be released,'' a Hmong rights advocate was quoted as having said in Saturday's edition of 'The Nation,' an English-language daily here.
''They have been locked inside the prison cells since Jan. 30 without seeing the sun. They have been forced to drink dirty water from the bathroom for more than a month and the food is not fit for human consumption,'' he added in describing the conditions under which the refugees, among them 80 children, have been kept in an immigration detention centre near the Thai-Laos border.
Bangkok's treatment of these Hmong, who stopped taking food on Thursday, has prompted criticism from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). All of the victims have been given refugee status by the U.N. agency and have been assured resettlement in a third country.
Similar concerns have been expressed over another group of nearly 8,000 Hmong refugees kept in a holding centre in Thailand's north-central province of Petchabun. They have been denied contact with the U.N. refugee agency and are being targeted by Bangkok to be deported back to neighbouring Laos, where the Hmong are a persecuted minority.
''This group should also be screened according to international standards to see if they have legitimate reasons to claim refugee status,'' Kitty McKinsey, a spokeswoman of the U.N. refugee agency's Bangkok office, told IPS. ''The Thai military has been involved in their registration process. UNHCR has not been involved.''
''We are concerned about them,'' she added. ''They should not be sent back till all of them have been screened.''
Humanitarian agencies aiding this larger group confirm the anxiety that has gripped them as they follow reports about the Thai government's discussions regards their fate. ''They think they will be deported to Laos and are afraid of that,'' says Gilles Isard, country director of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) France, which has been providing relief since 2005.
''They say they would rather die than going back to Laos,'' he said in an interview. ''They are really desperate after hearing the frightening stories of what happens to the Hmong once they are sent back to Laos.''
The pressure on the military-appointed government that runs Thailand is not only limited to the cries of the victims, nor that of humanitarian agencies. In March, the global rights body Amnesty International (AI) drew attention to the plight of the Hmong as refugees in Thailand and as an ethnic community under siege in Laos.
''In the past 15 months at least around 100 individuals have been unlawfully deported back to Laos,'' revealed AI in its report, 'Lao People's Democratic Republic Hiding in the jungle - Hmong under threat'. ''On three occasions Lao Hmong asylum-seekers were rounded up and held either at police stations or in Immigration Detention Centres for some time inside Thailand before being handed over to authorities in Laos.''
And the beginning of August saw 13 members of the U.S. Congress write a letter to Thailand's revered monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, to help stop further deportation of the Hmong refugees back to the homes they fled in Laos.
The refugees would ''face horrific mass starvation and death by the Lao military regime if they return to their homeland,'' the letter said, echoing sentiments that had been expressed in June by the U.S. State Department. On that occasion, Washington's foreign affairs arm requested the Thai government ''not to deport vulnerable people seeking refugee status without first having a screening process that meets international standards.''
Such interest by U.S. authorities in the Hmong goes beyond general concern about a persecuted minority. The Hmong, after all, were recruited by Washington's spy agency to serve as allies during the U.S. war in Vietnam and other corners of South-east Asia, including Laos. Some of the Hmong fighters' exploits became legendary during this Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operation, dubbed the ''Secret War,'' which was targeting the communist-led forces in Laos.
But after the communists triumphed in Laos, as they did in Vietnam, a defeated U.S. military establishment lost interest in the Hmong. This political turn in 1975 prompted some 300,000 Hmong, nearly a third of this ethnic group's population in Laos, to flee across to neighbouring Thailand in search of another home. They added to the tens of thousands of refugees from other war-ravaged countries like Cambodia and Vietnam who sought safety in Thailand at the time. Most of these Hmong were later resettled in the United States.
But the Hmong who remained have enjoyed little peace from the communist regime that has ruled Laos for the past three decades. Vientiane has continued to view them with suspicion and spared little in persecuting them.
''Thousands of ethnic Hmong women, men and children live in scattered groups in the Lao jungles, hiding from the authorities, particularly the military,'' AI revealed in its March 2007 report. ''The armed forces regularly attack their temporary encampments, killing and injuring them, perpetuating their life on the run.''
The Laotian government has also displayed such a hostile approach when Hmong refugees have been deported back, including denying access to the U.N. refugee agency to monitor resettlement efforts. In some cases, the Hmong who were forced back to Laos have ''disappeared,'' say journalists and photographers who have closely followed this story.
Bangkok's efforts to secure an independent monitor, even from another South-east Asian neighbour, to ensure the returning Hmong are resettled safely has been shot down by Vientiane. The latter views this cross-border movement as that of ''illegal immigrants'' and not refugees escaping human rights violations.
''The two countries will not allow the issue of Hmong illegal immigration to undermine our good relations since we have reached a conclusion that these people are not refugees and must be repatriated back to Laos,'' Yong Chantalansy, Lao government spokesman, told the 'Bangkok Post' newspaper this week during a visit to Thailand.
In March, Bangkok and Vientiane signed a bilateral agreement to strengthen ties to find solutions to a range of cross-border issues, including the Hmong ''problem.'' A meeting between the two governments to be held in September is expected to follow through on this agreement, with the fate of the Hmong scheduled for discussion.
IPS
By going on a hunger strike, some 150 ethnic Hmong refugees in Thailand have turned the heat on Bangkok to respect their rights and treat them with compassion.
''They decided to starve themselves and die in prison due to the fact that they have been tortured for the last eight months without a date to be released,'' a Hmong rights advocate was quoted as having said in Saturday's edition of 'The Nation,' an English-language daily here.
''They have been locked inside the prison cells since Jan. 30 without seeing the sun. They have been forced to drink dirty water from the bathroom for more than a month and the food is not fit for human consumption,'' he added in describing the conditions under which the refugees, among them 80 children, have been kept in an immigration detention centre near the Thai-Laos border.
Bangkok's treatment of these Hmong, who stopped taking food on Thursday, has prompted criticism from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). All of the victims have been given refugee status by the U.N. agency and have been assured resettlement in a third country.
Similar concerns have been expressed over another group of nearly 8,000 Hmong refugees kept in a holding centre in Thailand's north-central province of Petchabun. They have been denied contact with the U.N. refugee agency and are being targeted by Bangkok to be deported back to neighbouring Laos, where the Hmong are a persecuted minority.
''This group should also be screened according to international standards to see if they have legitimate reasons to claim refugee status,'' Kitty McKinsey, a spokeswoman of the U.N. refugee agency's Bangkok office, told IPS. ''The Thai military has been involved in their registration process. UNHCR has not been involved.''
''We are concerned about them,'' she added. ''They should not be sent back till all of them have been screened.''
Humanitarian agencies aiding this larger group confirm the anxiety that has gripped them as they follow reports about the Thai government's discussions regards their fate. ''They think they will be deported to Laos and are afraid of that,'' says Gilles Isard, country director of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) France, which has been providing relief since 2005.
''They say they would rather die than going back to Laos,'' he said in an interview. ''They are really desperate after hearing the frightening stories of what happens to the Hmong once they are sent back to Laos.''
The pressure on the military-appointed government that runs Thailand is not only limited to the cries of the victims, nor that of humanitarian agencies. In March, the global rights body Amnesty International (AI) drew attention to the plight of the Hmong as refugees in Thailand and as an ethnic community under siege in Laos.
''In the past 15 months at least around 100 individuals have been unlawfully deported back to Laos,'' revealed AI in its report, 'Lao People's Democratic Republic Hiding in the jungle - Hmong under threat'. ''On three occasions Lao Hmong asylum-seekers were rounded up and held either at police stations or in Immigration Detention Centres for some time inside Thailand before being handed over to authorities in Laos.''
And the beginning of August saw 13 members of the U.S. Congress write a letter to Thailand's revered monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, to help stop further deportation of the Hmong refugees back to the homes they fled in Laos.
The refugees would ''face horrific mass starvation and death by the Lao military regime if they return to their homeland,'' the letter said, echoing sentiments that had been expressed in June by the U.S. State Department. On that occasion, Washington's foreign affairs arm requested the Thai government ''not to deport vulnerable people seeking refugee status without first having a screening process that meets international standards.''
Such interest by U.S. authorities in the Hmong goes beyond general concern about a persecuted minority. The Hmong, after all, were recruited by Washington's spy agency to serve as allies during the U.S. war in Vietnam and other corners of South-east Asia, including Laos. Some of the Hmong fighters' exploits became legendary during this Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operation, dubbed the ''Secret War,'' which was targeting the communist-led forces in Laos.
But after the communists triumphed in Laos, as they did in Vietnam, a defeated U.S. military establishment lost interest in the Hmong. This political turn in 1975 prompted some 300,000 Hmong, nearly a third of this ethnic group's population in Laos, to flee across to neighbouring Thailand in search of another home. They added to the tens of thousands of refugees from other war-ravaged countries like Cambodia and Vietnam who sought safety in Thailand at the time. Most of these Hmong were later resettled in the United States.
But the Hmong who remained have enjoyed little peace from the communist regime that has ruled Laos for the past three decades. Vientiane has continued to view them with suspicion and spared little in persecuting them.
''Thousands of ethnic Hmong women, men and children live in scattered groups in the Lao jungles, hiding from the authorities, particularly the military,'' AI revealed in its March 2007 report. ''The armed forces regularly attack their temporary encampments, killing and injuring them, perpetuating their life on the run.''
The Laotian government has also displayed such a hostile approach when Hmong refugees have been deported back, including denying access to the U.N. refugee agency to monitor resettlement efforts. In some cases, the Hmong who were forced back to Laos have ''disappeared,'' say journalists and photographers who have closely followed this story.
Bangkok's efforts to secure an independent monitor, even from another South-east Asian neighbour, to ensure the returning Hmong are resettled safely has been shot down by Vientiane. The latter views this cross-border movement as that of ''illegal immigrants'' and not refugees escaping human rights violations.
''The two countries will not allow the issue of Hmong illegal immigration to undermine our good relations since we have reached a conclusion that these people are not refugees and must be repatriated back to Laos,'' Yong Chantalansy, Lao government spokesman, told the 'Bangkok Post' newspaper this week during a visit to Thailand.
In March, Bangkok and Vientiane signed a bilateral agreement to strengthen ties to find solutions to a range of cross-border issues, including the Hmong ''problem.'' A meeting between the two governments to be held in September is expected to follow through on this agreement, with the fate of the Hmong scheduled for discussion.
IPS