Thailand repatriates Laos Hmong

The ghosts of the Vietnam War have resurfaced in Thailand with the announcement by the Thai government of the repatriation of some 4,000 Hmong asylum seekers back to Laos PDR. The Thai government has stated that the forced deportation by military armed with batons and shields has begun already and is expected to last for around four days in total.

The Hmong hill tribe people famously fought on the side of the US in what has become known as The Secret War in Laos where they rallied against the communists of Ho Chi Minh. Their allegiance gave them unwanted notoriety in their homeland and across communist Asia and there are fears of reprisals upon any returns. To this day there are still sporadic bursts of Hmong insurgency against the Laotian government.

In spite of complaints over the repatriation by the United Nations, the United States and various aid and human rights organisations Thailand has pressed ahead with the exercise, even though it has previously acknowledged that many of the asylum seekers have qualified for refugee status.

The removals will be from a remote settlement around 200 miles outside of the capital Bangkok where the refugee camp lies in the Phetchabun Province. The camp is a leftover for refugees from the Indochina conflicts that included the Khmer Rouge brutalities and the Vietnamese boat people. It has also played home to an inestimable number of Laos who fled their country as the US turned it into the most bombed nation on earth during the Vietnam War. Some 150,000 Hmong were accepted by the US after the war but since 2006 Thailand has refused to allow the remaining refugees international contact.