Thailand's recent repatriation of over 800 ethnic Hmong to Laos may have included some who wee sent back involuntarily in violation of international humanitarian standards, human rights groups said Thursday.
The 837 Hmong, all of whom are believed to have fled their homeland in the past few years, were repatriated Sunday.
The Thai government said the repatriated Hmong were among the thousands who have been demonstrating since May at a makeshift camp in Thailand's Phetchabun province.
They were protesting their situation at the camp, which holds an estimated 8,000 Hmong from Laos, and a repatriation agreement between Bangkok and Laos. Most say they fear for their safety in their communist homeland, where they have a long history of conflict with the authorities.
Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Tharit Charungvat said more than 800 people returned to Laos voluntarily.
"Only a handful who had instigated unrest in the camp were deported," he said. "But the rest wanted to go. Many of them were lured into Thailand in the hope that they will be resettled in a third country."
Tharit later told The Associated Press that even those considered instigators ft voluntarily and with no use of force after negotiations with the Thai authorities, and that they asked their families to leave with them.
However, the humanitarian aid group Doctors Without Borders said it believed most of the 800 had been forced to return to Laos, and raised concern about the lack of access for independent parties to monitor the process.
"Thai authorities claim that these were voluntary repatriations.
It is hard to believe," said Gilles Isard, who heads the Thailand mission of Doctors Without Borders. "Families have been torn apart. One of our Hmong staff members who joined the protest has been sent back to Laos without her children and we know of similar cases."
The group is better known by the acronym MSF for its French name Medecins Sans Frontieres.
"According to internationally recognized and fundamental rights of protection for refugees, repatriation cannot be forced or imposed on individuals fearing for their safety and any repatriation must remain linked to guarantees for safety upon return, including the provision of appropriate assistance," MSF said.
MSF called for the Thai and Laotian governments to facilitate the access of independent monitors to all forced returnees so that adequate medical and humanitarian assistance can be provided.
The London-based group Amnesty International, which also issued a statement expressing concern, said that without independent monitors present, "it is likely that some of the group were coerced into returning. Some are at risk of torture."
Lao officials could not be reached for comment.
The Hmong say they fear political persecution in Laos. Many Hmong fought on the side of a pro-U.S. Laotian government in the 1960s and 1970s before the communist takeover of their country in 1975.
More than 300,000 Laotians, mostly Hmong, fled to Thailand after the takeover. Most were resettled in third countries, particularly the United States, although several thousand were voluntarily repatriated to Laos.
Thailand asserts that the Hmong are not legitimate refugees and have violated Thai law by entering the country illegally.(*)
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