July 6, 2008
HMONG UPDATE: Refugees Deported Voluntarily -- Or Forcibly?
By David M. Kinchen
Huntingtonnews.net Editor
About 1,600 Hmong Lao refugees did not return to the refugee camp after Thailand’s police and military stopped the desperate march of 5,000 Hmong towards Bangkok to reach the UNHCR – the UN agency for refugees, which has been never been allowed access to the asylum seekers, news sources and rights advocates have reported.
Since their deportation, News Channel Al Jazeera journalist Hannah Belcher saw only about a hundred returnees, well guarded by Lao military, during their transit in Laos.
To watch the Al Jazeera news video click: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YJL6QZjlmc
"A lot of these people are very traumatized, looking at their past, and their fear to go back to Laos, we doubt that they were prepared to go back voluntarily to Laos,“ said Gilles Isard, director of Doctors Without Borders, the medical aid agency working in the refugee camp.
Hmong advocacy and human rights groups believe that the Hmong now in the hands of the country they had fled from will have no choice but to say that they returned freely.
After the mass deportation, foreign mission representatives rushed to visit a group of 215 in Petchaboun waiting for their voluntary deportation slated for next Thursday. But while human rights groups expected that the U.S., Australia and Canada -- among other countries -- would object to the questionable manner in which the prior deportation was conducted, the diplomats stated instead their satisfaction with Thailand's treatment of the Hmong -- which was swiftly announced by Lt-Gen. Nipat Thonglek, Chief of the Royal Thai Army's Border Affairs Department in an article of Thailand's News Agency MCOT on Friday, July 4.
"There is no transparency on how Thailand determined the refugees' need for asylum, the UNHCR is denied access to the refugee camp, independent observers are not allowed to monitor the free consent of these hundreds and hundreds of deported, and the most concerning of all, there is nobody to watch what happens to them ones settled in Laos,“said Zong Vang, Lao Human Rights Council, La Crosse, WI.
"If these alarming reports from our Hmong community are correct, then I would like to remind the Thai government that they should take the legitimate concerns of the international community and the refugees into due account,“ Minnesota State Representative Cy Thao told Huntingtonnews.net.
Australia’s Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said last Friday that Australia will take 20 Hmong refugees, which have to been assessed as being eligible for protection. . The Netherlands, the U.S. and others are expected to follow suit with similar announcements with those refugees which have been held detained for more than a year in Thailand's overcrowded Detention Center. Captured in Bangkok, they received UNHCR refugee status, documents which other Hmong refugees in the camp do not have.
"Hmong are grateful that Australia and other countries will take some of them, especially those held for over a year in the Detention Center, but it doesn’t change the fact, that they have not taken a public stand for all these victims now being returned, even so there was no transparency, there are no measurements taken to ensure their well-being, dignity and very survival,“ said Vang.
In light of the recent wave of deportations, Rebecca Sommer, filmmaker of the award-winning documentary "Hunted Like Animals," and a regular news source to HNN on refugee matters, released her new video on YouTube, titled “The Shameful Truth: How Laos Treats Repatriated Hmong Refugees.“ The video features Hmong refugee girls who explain what happened to them back in Laos after their forced deportation, Sommer told HNN.
The disappearance of the "26 missing Hmong refugee children“ made international headlines. After 16 months of LPDRs denial that the children were inside of Laos, and increasing international pressure, 21 of the girls were all by a sudden "found“ by Laotian authorities. 5 boys and one woman are missing to this day.
"Among numerous press releases that the girls were well treated -- the LPDR published photos and a video on the internet to ensure the outside world with no access to them, that the children were well and happy"said Sommer, based in New York City. "But some of the girls escaped back to Thailand– and tell us a very different story of such cruel torture, that it will haunt the viewer,“ added Sommer.
To watch the video:“The Shameful Truth: How Laos Treats Repatriated Hmong Refugees“
Click: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbn394wy-pw
“The purpose of my video is to raise awareness on how the LPDR is expected to treat most of the repatriated Hmong Lao refugees, and counter the LPDR’s lies, their videos and pictures they currently post on the internet in the lack of allowing real monitoring observers full access to the people," Sommer said.
"These were children, imagine, as young as 9 years old, and watch what they did to them. There are hundreds of documented reports how the LPDR is miss-treating the Hmong, especially those who lived internally displaced hiding in the jungles of Laos. Let’s not forget this is a communist country which denies its citizens fundamental rights of opinion, religion, freedom of speech, and has a terrible human rights record,“ she added.
"We took precautions and copied the LPDR’s “handover of 21 girls” video -- in case they decide to remove it after Rebecca Sommer’s video release,” said Chue Chou Tchang, a community leader from St. Paul, MN. ”We will post the LPDR’s video again, in case they want to hide it, now after the truth is told by the victims”.
To watch the LPDR video"Handover of 21 girls":
Click: http://s142.photobucket.com/albums/r106/LPDR/?action=view¤t=acbef74d.pbr
"Laos considers the refugees as traitors to their country. They fled Laos, criticized Laos, and embarrassed the LPDR. We truly fear the worst for the returnees,“ he added.
"Our Hmong community received reports that some families agreed to go back. Indeed there are Hmong who left Laos for a better life, seeking freedom -- and may not have had any official problems on the record while living inside of Laos. But many of the refugees cannot go back, they would be seriously endangered. Those who may have volunteered, it is not really a free, informed decision, they are coerced to agree. The refugees have no sense of security or protection. All they hear is that they will get about $ 400, which is a lot of money, and that they won’t be punished, if they agree to return now," said Kue Xiong, president of the Lao Human Rights Council, Wisconsin. "All they know is that Thailand will deport them regardless, and if they are considered resisters to return -- they will be punished even more by Laos, and they all know that,“ Xiong added.
Human Rights groups are speciffically concerned about the forcefully deported Hmong men and leaders.
"The Thai military forwarded the entire documentation of the refugees screening process to Laos, containing the photograph, information and fingerprint of each asylum seeker. The refugees detailed reasons why they were seeking refugee status will now be used against them, without mercy,“ said Kue Xiong.
Editor's note: For more stories on the ongoing Hmong refugee crisis, use the search engine on the huntingtonnews.net site.
Share This Story:
Make HNN Your Homepage (IE Users Only)
HMONG UPDATE: Refugees Deported Voluntarily -- Or Forcibly?
By David M. Kinchen
Huntingtonnews.net Editor
About 1,600 Hmong Lao refugees did not return to the refugee camp after Thailand’s police and military stopped the desperate march of 5,000 Hmong towards Bangkok to reach the UNHCR – the UN agency for refugees, which has been never been allowed access to the asylum seekers, news sources and rights advocates have reported.
Since their deportation, News Channel Al Jazeera journalist Hannah Belcher saw only about a hundred returnees, well guarded by Lao military, during their transit in Laos.
To watch the Al Jazeera news video click: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YJL6QZjlmc
"A lot of these people are very traumatized, looking at their past, and their fear to go back to Laos, we doubt that they were prepared to go back voluntarily to Laos,“ said Gilles Isard, director of Doctors Without Borders, the medical aid agency working in the refugee camp.
Hmong advocacy and human rights groups believe that the Hmong now in the hands of the country they had fled from will have no choice but to say that they returned freely.
After the mass deportation, foreign mission representatives rushed to visit a group of 215 in Petchaboun waiting for their voluntary deportation slated for next Thursday. But while human rights groups expected that the U.S., Australia and Canada -- among other countries -- would object to the questionable manner in which the prior deportation was conducted, the diplomats stated instead their satisfaction with Thailand's treatment of the Hmong -- which was swiftly announced by Lt-Gen. Nipat Thonglek, Chief of the Royal Thai Army's Border Affairs Department in an article of Thailand's News Agency MCOT on Friday, July 4.
"There is no transparency on how Thailand determined the refugees' need for asylum, the UNHCR is denied access to the refugee camp, independent observers are not allowed to monitor the free consent of these hundreds and hundreds of deported, and the most concerning of all, there is nobody to watch what happens to them ones settled in Laos,“said Zong Vang, Lao Human Rights Council, La Crosse, WI.
"If these alarming reports from our Hmong community are correct, then I would like to remind the Thai government that they should take the legitimate concerns of the international community and the refugees into due account,“ Minnesota State Representative Cy Thao told Huntingtonnews.net.
Australia’s Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said last Friday that Australia will take 20 Hmong refugees, which have to been assessed as being eligible for protection. . The Netherlands, the U.S. and others are expected to follow suit with similar announcements with those refugees which have been held detained for more than a year in Thailand's overcrowded Detention Center. Captured in Bangkok, they received UNHCR refugee status, documents which other Hmong refugees in the camp do not have.
"Hmong are grateful that Australia and other countries will take some of them, especially those held for over a year in the Detention Center, but it doesn’t change the fact, that they have not taken a public stand for all these victims now being returned, even so there was no transparency, there are no measurements taken to ensure their well-being, dignity and very survival,“ said Vang.
In light of the recent wave of deportations, Rebecca Sommer, filmmaker of the award-winning documentary "Hunted Like Animals," and a regular news source to HNN on refugee matters, released her new video on YouTube, titled “The Shameful Truth: How Laos Treats Repatriated Hmong Refugees.“ The video features Hmong refugee girls who explain what happened to them back in Laos after their forced deportation, Sommer told HNN.
The disappearance of the "26 missing Hmong refugee children“ made international headlines. After 16 months of LPDRs denial that the children were inside of Laos, and increasing international pressure, 21 of the girls were all by a sudden "found“ by Laotian authorities. 5 boys and one woman are missing to this day.
"Among numerous press releases that the girls were well treated -- the LPDR published photos and a video on the internet to ensure the outside world with no access to them, that the children were well and happy"said Sommer, based in New York City. "But some of the girls escaped back to Thailand– and tell us a very different story of such cruel torture, that it will haunt the viewer,“ added Sommer.
To watch the video:“The Shameful Truth: How Laos Treats Repatriated Hmong Refugees“
Click: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbn394wy-pw
“The purpose of my video is to raise awareness on how the LPDR is expected to treat most of the repatriated Hmong Lao refugees, and counter the LPDR’s lies, their videos and pictures they currently post on the internet in the lack of allowing real monitoring observers full access to the people," Sommer said.
"These were children, imagine, as young as 9 years old, and watch what they did to them. There are hundreds of documented reports how the LPDR is miss-treating the Hmong, especially those who lived internally displaced hiding in the jungles of Laos. Let’s not forget this is a communist country which denies its citizens fundamental rights of opinion, religion, freedom of speech, and has a terrible human rights record,“ she added.
"We took precautions and copied the LPDR’s “handover of 21 girls” video -- in case they decide to remove it after Rebecca Sommer’s video release,” said Chue Chou Tchang, a community leader from St. Paul, MN. ”We will post the LPDR’s video again, in case they want to hide it, now after the truth is told by the victims”.
To watch the LPDR video"Handover of 21 girls":
Click: http://s142.photobucket.com/albums/r106/LPDR/?action=view¤t=acbef74d.pbr
"Laos considers the refugees as traitors to their country. They fled Laos, criticized Laos, and embarrassed the LPDR. We truly fear the worst for the returnees,“ he added.
"Our Hmong community received reports that some families agreed to go back. Indeed there are Hmong who left Laos for a better life, seeking freedom -- and may not have had any official problems on the record while living inside of Laos. But many of the refugees cannot go back, they would be seriously endangered. Those who may have volunteered, it is not really a free, informed decision, they are coerced to agree. The refugees have no sense of security or protection. All they hear is that they will get about $ 400, which is a lot of money, and that they won’t be punished, if they agree to return now," said Kue Xiong, president of the Lao Human Rights Council, Wisconsin. "All they know is that Thailand will deport them regardless, and if they are considered resisters to return -- they will be punished even more by Laos, and they all know that,“ Xiong added.
Human Rights groups are speciffically concerned about the forcefully deported Hmong men and leaders.
"The Thai military forwarded the entire documentation of the refugees screening process to Laos, containing the photograph, information and fingerprint of each asylum seeker. The refugees detailed reasons why they were seeking refugee status will now be used against them, without mercy,“ said Kue Xiong.
Editor's note: For more stories on the ongoing Hmong refugee crisis, use the search engine on the huntingtonnews.net site.
Share This Story:
Make HNN Your Homepage (IE Users Only)
