March 6, 2008
BANGKOK - The Human Rights Watch group called Thai government to stop sending ethnic Hmong people in Thailand back to Laos without first assessing if they face abuse and persecution back home.
Eleven Hmong migrants last week left an informal refugee camp, home to about 8,000 Hmong in northern Thailand, and returned to Laos.
The repatriation was one day ahead of PM Samak’s official visit to Vientiane.
Though Thai and Laotian officials claimed those migrants volunteered to return home, some monitoring groups said dogs were used to force them onto trucks.
Thailand plans to repatriate all the Hmong in the camp in Phetchabun within this year.
The group considers the forced repatriation is against the international law.
