IMMIGRATION

Nations renew offer of refuge to Hmong

Published: 8/03/2010 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: News

Four countries which agreed to accept 158 Hmong refugees for resettlement before they were repatriated to Laos have renewed their offers, diplomatic sources say.

The US, which agreed to accept as many as 70 Hmong, Canada, the Netherlands and Australia, want to pursue the resettlement, the sources said.

However, they might prefer to wait for a while to avoid causing embarrassment to Thailand and Laos which forced the 158 refugees to return to Laos on Dec 28 last year as part of a mass repatriation of 4,500 Hmong.

The four countries were told by senior authorities in Thailand, including Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban and Lt Gen Nipat Thonglek, chief of the Royal Armed Forces' Border Affairs Department, that they could pursue the resettlement process with the Lao government 30 days after the Hmong had returned to Laos, the sources said.

Their applications requests to Vientiane have so far been rejected.

The sources said Laos might want to wait until the international attention which the repatriation attracted has died down.

Buaxieng Champaphan, the Lao army deputy chief of staff, last month told Thai and US delegates the returnees were safe and he welcomed any party to contact them through Vientiane.

''However, if the Hmong are happy here, they should not be bothered by outsiders,'' said Brig Gen Buaxieng during a tour of the Hmong resettlement site in Borikhamsay, about 230 kilometres southeast of Vientiane.

''What we need is [foreign] support for schools and other infrastructure development which will cost some US$8 million.''

A Western diplomat said the international community was generally willing to provide humanitarian assistance to the returnees.

But he said: ''The forced return of the 158 from Nong Khai does not change their refugee status. We remain concerned about their welfare.''

The US priority, sources said, was to get Laos's permission to talk with four families (20 people) who were repatriated from Nong Khai to an unknown location outside the Lao capital.

The US is also concerned over the plight of three young members of a family and a young woman who were allegedly sexually abused by Lao authorities.

The four countries want private access to the Hmong so they can find out if they still want to proceed with the resettlement to a third country.

The sources said the group's refugee status remained valid despite them being forced by Laos to relinquish, in writing, any desire to resettle in a third country.

The Hmong's choices must be carried out by NGOs or the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, not by the country which persecuted these people, the diplomats said. They also expressed disappointment that the four Western countries had not yet been able to pursue the resettlement programme with Laos.

They said Thailand's record on human rights issue had worsened in recent times.

It is being watched closely by the US, the European Union and other members of the international community not just for its handling of the Hmong issue but also for its discrimination against the Rohingyas and Karen refugees.

This might affect its bid for membership of the UN Human Rights Council in May, the sources said.