BANGKOK (AFP)--Thailand will send 190 members of the Hmong ethnic minority back to Laos from refugee camps Monday, a military official said, despite claims they face persecution in their homeland.
They are among thousands of Hmong living in camps in northeast Thailand seeking political asylum claiming they face persecution at home, because they fought alongside U.S. forces during the Vietnam War.
"Today we will send 190 Hmong back to Laos. We have already sent 1,809 back in 11 previous trips since (the beginning of) last year," said Lt. Gen. Nipat Thonglek, who runs the department of border affairs.
The repatriations follow an agreement between Thailand and neighboring communist Laos last month to send back 5,000 members of the Hmong ethnic minority.
Thailand says the Hmong refugees are economic migrants seeking work and has been slowly sending them back to Laos, to the horror of human rights groups who say that some might genuinely be in danger of persecution.
New York-based Human Rights Watch has accused Lao security forces of arrests, torture, sexual abuse and extrajudicial killings of Hmong and has demanded both countries allow U.N. monitoring of any repatriations.
Thailand lately has been cultivating Laos as a key regional ally, with energy-hungry Thailand buying increasing amounts of electricity from their neighbor to the north.
Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva visited Laos for his first official overseas visit Jan. 23, saying he intended to strengthen existing ties with one of the kingdom's key regional allies.
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Publié le 02 Février 2009 Copyright © 2009 Dowjones