Thai stand-off over Hmong refugees
24/6/08
About 3,000 ethnic Hmong refugees people are refusing pressure from the Thai government to return home to Laos after a mass breakout last weekend from a detention centre in northern Thailand. On Friday some 5,000 refugees marched out of the Huey Nam Khao camp in Thailand’s Petchabun province, in an effort to bring attention to their claims for asylum. About 2,000 of the refugees have now reportedly agreed to return to Laos, some of them saying they had been offered $500 per family from the Laos government - the equivalent of half a years’ wage. But the remaining 3,000 have refused to move, and are demanding urgent help from the United Nations’ refugee agency.
See: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2008/06/20086237276114825.html
Tags: Human Rights, Laos, Refugees, Thailand