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On Thailand’s Repatriation of the Hmong Lao Refugees to Laos: A SERIOUS VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS , A GRAVE THREAT TO THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE’S SURVIVAL
The Thai government’s forcible repatriation to Laos of 4,500 refugees and asylum seekers from the Lao Hmong Indigenous Peoples last January 4, 2010, seriously violates the human rights and threatens the very survival of the Lao Hmong refugees. The Asia-Pacific Solidarity Coalition (APSOC) raises grave concern and joins the alarm of the international community concerning the Hmong peoples well-founded fear of persecution and maltreatment in Laos.
Reported cases of various human rights violations against the Hmong continue to reach the international community , such as persecution and assaults on civil-political rights and suppression of religious freedom. Previously repatriated Hmong have been allegedly subjected to disappearances, imprisonment, forced re-education and physical and sexual assault. Hmong communities in the jungles are reportedly targets of military operations from the Lao government that accuses them of anti-government activities and insurgency.
A threatened and forgotten people with a turbulent history The Hmong Lao or Hmong are indigenous peoples in Laos who, during the height of the Vietnam and IndoChina war in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s were recruited, conscripted or trained by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in its covert operations or “Secret War” against the Communist revolutionary movements in Laos and Vietnam. Following the defeat of the US war of aggression in Vietnam and IndoChina and the rise to power of communist governments, including the Pathet Lao regime in Laos—close to a third of the entire Hmong population escaped from Laos to Thailand and some, even to the US. Thousands of Hmong stayed in Thailand for decades as refugees and asylum seekers.
Human rights and indigenous people’s rights advocates often refer to the Hmong as a “threatened and forgotten people”. The relative invisibility of their cause and issues even in the international circles are partly due to the politically-complicated and sensitive history and nature of their case. Precisely because of this that they are rendered even more vulnerable to continued persecution and human rights abuse. APSOC stands for the human rights, including the rights of the indigenous peoples for self-determination and avers that the Hmong Laos fundamental rights as individuals and peoples should be upheld, promoted and respected.
Violation of fundamental principle of “non-refoulement” by Thai authorities
Despite repeated calls by the international community, including the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR), the government of Thailand deported many of the Hmong recognized by the UNHCR and the Royal Thai government as refugees who had stayed in Thai refugee camps for decades.
The Thai government (together with an increasing number of Asian governments such as Bangladesh.Cambodia and China) has, in effect breached the fundamental principle of “non-refoulement”—the prohibition, both under international customary laws and international treaties, of the forced deportation (refoulement) of asylum seekers, refugees and individuals at risk of torture and worse fate. The current Thai government also reneged on its commitment as a member of the United Nations, bound by its Charter and the Statute of the UNHCR to help ensure the safety and protection of refugees.
The Thai government labeled the Hmong Lao as “economic” rather than “ political” refugees. It also invoked the so-called bilateral agreements it entered into with the Lao government that allegedly guarantees fair treatment of the Hmong Lao once they are returned to Laos. Thailand repatriated around 3,000 Lao Hmong in previous years and claimed it received no reports of abuses and ill-treatment.
Human rights of Hmongs are universal, indivisible and interrelated
The Thai government’s claim is a gross distortion of the Hmong Lao issue and a disservice to human rights and social justice. The Hmong Lao refugees in Thailand escaped Laos on undeniably political grounds. Thus, they should be recognized as political refugees or claimants and asylum seekers.
While still in Thai refugee camps, UN refugee agencies were barred access to Hmong evacuees thereby denying the latter a proper determination of their status as refugees, consistent with international standards. Notwithstanding this and shortly before the recent mass deportation, at least 400 repatriated Hmong Lao were reportedly found by the UNHCR to have a valid refugee claims and/or status.
The “economic refugee” label also belies the reality that in many cases of mass displacements and refugees in various countries, the distinction between political and economic reasons for fleeing is often blurred, and thus becomes irrelevant. Refugees and mass evacuations often occur as “mixed flows” where political reasons and the need for economic survival of the displaced peoples are interrelated , if not intertwined.
Human rights is not only universal, but also indivisible and interrelated. Every humanity is entitled to the enjoyment not only of civil and political but also the economic, social and cultural rights. The Hmong Lao peoples deserve no less.
APSOC joins the call of the international community for an immediate and unhampered access by the UNHCR to the repatriated Hmongs in Laos. We also call on both the Laos and Thai authorities to publicly disclose the terms of bilateral agreement that contain “guarantees” for the safety and well-being of the refugees.
As much as we raise alarm about the possible violations of the Hmong Lao people’s civil and political rights, we equally fear for their collective rights as Indigenous Peoples. Their right to a free, prior and informed consent particularly on policies and actions that affect them as a people is seriously undermined by their current conditions of being “under duress” in the hands of the Laotian authorities.
We fear that the equal if not greater danger is in their subjection against their will to the Laotian government’s policies and actions, and their forced assimilation of a way of life alien to theirs . Thus, they face the real danger of the eventual erosion, if not loss of their identity and survival as indigenous peoples.
APSOC calls on the international community to stand in solidarity with the struggles of the Lao Hmongs and other threatened peoples for their human rights, dignity and survival.
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