IMMIGRANTS / FORCED REPATRIATION
MSF oppose moving Hmong
ACHARA ASHAYAGACHAT
A leading non-governmental organisation has asked the government to abandon a plan to repatriate Hmong people at Phetchabun's Huay Nam Khao camp against their will.
Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF), the only non-governmental organisation allowed to work with the 7,500 Hmong at the camp, called on the government to allow the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) to assess the Hmong and verify their claims for refugee status and protection.
Gilles Isard, the head of MSF's Thailand's mission, said the annual 1.6 million euro (about 68 million baht) budget for food and health relief given to the Hmong in the past two years would be a waste if they are sent back to Laos to face persecution.
The MSF's plea follows concerns made previously by other international human rights organisations, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, as well as policy makers in the US and European Union.
It was found that the Hmong are under stress from fears of forced repatriation. There have also been two attempted suicides.
MSF also refused to take part in a plan conceived by the Thai and Lao authorities to set up a base in a Vientiane-sponsored resettlement in Ban Kasi, about 270 kilometres north of the Lao capital.
Bangkok Post Nov. 2, 2007