How many Hmong people did Thailand send back to Laos recently?”
Thailand on Monday began to deport back to Laos more than 4,000 ethnic Hmong asylum-seekers, defying intense pressure from the United Nations, the United States and human rights groups who say the deportees could face persecution upon their return. After days of preparation, 5,000 troops and officials entered the Hmong camp in Thailand’s central Petchabun province early in the morning to begin moving the asylum-seekers onto buses that would take them over the border, a process that a military official said might take 24 hours. Col. Thana Charuwat, the officer in charge of the operation, said that 2,100 of the camp residents had agreed to leave voluntarily and that the army was trying to persuade the rest. But the Thai government has blocked media and international access to the camp and mobile telephone signals in it, making it difficult to independently confirm that information. The migrants say they are at risk from persecution by the Laos government if they return there. Many were s
Thailand sent army troops with shields and batons to evict more than 4,000 ethnic Hmong asylum-seekers Monday and send them back to Laos despite strong objections from the U.S. and rights groups who fear they will face persecution. Under tight security, all 4,371 of the Hmong were loaded onto covered military trucks and driven out of the camp by late afternoon toward buses waiting near the Lao border, Thai authorities said. Journalists kept at a distance from the camp could see many children inside the trucks.Col. Thana Charuwat said Thai troops “didn’t even touch” the Hmong who offered no resistance as they were taken from the camp. With the eviction under way, the United States called for it to stop.”The United States strongly urges Thai authorities to suspend this operation,” U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said in a statement, noting that the United Nations and Thailand in the past had deemed that many of the Hmong in this group were “in need of protection because of the
