Joanna Maxwell; 20/6/08
Chief Yong Tong Veng, head of the Hmong people at Petchabun camp, is desperate. ‘We are hiding in this camp and no-one has come to help, the food is not enough. Do not send us back to Laos. Do not send us back to Laos. Please ask UNHCR [the United Nations Refugee agency] to help us. The Lao government shoot with big bullets in the jungle and children die. Do not send us back to Laos …’ Some 8000 Hmong people live in this camp, 350 kilometres north of Bangkok, towards the Lao border. They are surrounded by barbed wire and under military guard. They have insufficient food, no schooling and limited ability to access Thai hospitals. Epidemics are a constant threat. They must wear identity cards marked ‘in Thailand illegally’. They could be pitched back into Laos and the terrors it holds for them at any time.
See: http://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=7515
Tags: Human Rights, Laos, Refugees, Thailand