Thailand must not tarnish its name over Hmong crisis
LIONEL ROSENBLATT
The Thai government has launched a dangerous trial balloon in its bid to repatriate several thousand Hmong from Laos. If the international community does not weigh in rapidly and effectively with the government, many Hmong will be forced back to Laos where they will face possible persecution.
Most of the 8,000 Hmong from Laos are in Phetchabun province.
Also under threat of forced repatriation are 150 or more Hmong recognised as refugees by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) who are being held in wretched conditions for more than a year in a detention centre in Nong Khai, perilously close to the crossing point to Laos.
These refugees have all been offered opportunities to resettle in third countries, but Thailand has refused to consider these offers.
Several days ago, the government returned 10 Hmong from Phetchabun to Laos _ all supposedly ''volunteers''. It seems that in at least one case, a Hmong woman with five children was ''repatriated'' without her children. Fortunately, Thai authorities at the last moment took her off the bus. Several Hmong told they were on the next list of volunteers did not know they had ''volunteered''.Medecins Sans Frontieres, the NGO in charge of the camp in Phetchabun, has expressed serious concerns about the grim future facing the refugees there.
Thailand should immediately cease forced repatriation of the Hmong to Laos. A significant proportion of the Hmong who fled to Phetchabun have ties to that war effort or are fighters who only recently abandoned their last ditch Hmong resistance in Laos.
Certainly such Hmong meet the key criterion for international refugee status _ a well-founded fear of persecution, if returned to their country of origin.
There are also non-refugees among the Hmong in Phetchabun who crossed for a better life or to join relatives.
Following the fall of the US-backed governments in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, Thailand has generally been tolerant of Indochinese refugees fleeing and over a million crossed into Thailand or given safe havens on its borders.
The international community responded to this generosity by either resettling almost all of those who entered Thailand to third countries or in assisting their voluntary return to their homelands, as was the case with most of the Cambodian refugees who return home.
Thailand deservedly has received much international acclaim for its role as the leading country of asylum during the Indochinese exodus. While the Thai government says it has completed refugee screening of the 8,000 Hmong, this process has not been transparent nor subject to any consultation or monitoring to determine whether it conformed to international standards of refugee protection.
Of particular concern for many involved with the US war effort in Indochina is that some Hmong with war time ties to the US as well as recent combatants against the repressive Lao government have not been screened in as refugees; this may be due to a flaw in the screening that did not consider or focus on such individual histories.
So the most endangered Hmong are, in many cases, the most likely to be subject to return to Laos. This is widely seen, in part, as Thailand bowing to pressure from Lao officials, especially those in the Lao military wishing to get such refugees into their hands.
The Hmong crisis in Thailand can be resolved in an acceptable manner if the following steps are taken _ true voluntary repatriation can be put in place immediately with some form of international access to the process and a fair and more transparent review of screening for those Hmong who have been screened out _ and who so request _ to insure that those with a well-founded fear of persecution are not returned to Laos. The international community, led by the US, should agree to resettle the Hmong refugees.Thanks to UNHCR and other efforts, several countries already have expressed a willingness to do so.
The US Congress, cognisant of the history of the Hmong, recently acted to permit the resettlement of Hmong and some other combatants struggling against non-democratic governments, which now needs to be implemented.
Jump-starting this provision could save the lives of many refugees at risk, like the Hmong. Forced return of non-refugees to Laos can begin, when the Lao government permits some form of international access.
For the future, the flow of refugees from Laos should wind down sharply. About a thousand Hmong are still holding out. Some of this number may well try to flee to Thailand and perhaps some will continue to surrender; more would do so with international monitoring.
A mechanism to leave Laos for such persons and for legitimate migrants should be put in place; such an orderly departure programme worked well in Vietnam. The Vietnamese government, with its ties to Laos, could be helpful by prodding the Lao government to action.
Meanwhile, international influence with Thailand should be exerted immediately by governments to insure the Thai trial balloon does not lead to further forced repatriation of Hmong refugees. This would be a great shame for the refugees, and for Thailand.
In the final chapter of the exodus from Indochina, Thailand should not be seen around the world to be blotting its widely praised refugee record.
Lionel Rosenblatt is president emeritus of Refugees International.
Bangkok Post March 14, 2008