Dec 24, 2009, 8:12 GMT
Bangkok - Thailand plans to repatriate 4,000 ethnic Hmong to Laos despite concerns about their safety, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said Thursday.
'We have to send them back,' Abhisit told reporters, 'but we will not violate their human rights and will follow a suitable schedule.'
Thailand has signed an agreement with Laos to repatriate the Hmong from camps and detention centres in Phetchabun and Nong Khai provinces in northern Thailand by the end of this year.
The European Union this week expressed its concerns about the pending mass repatriation because there are fears that the Hmong, an ethnic minority group that sided with the US military in its 'secret war' against communism in the Indochina War, could face persecution.
Thousands of Hmong have been in the Ban Huay Nam Klhao camp in Phetchubun since 2004 with little hope of being resettled to third countries.
Thailand has not acknowledged their refugee status and refers to them as 'economic immigrants.'
Thailand has argued that Laos has developed substantially since it opted for a communist regime in 1975 and is prepared to take back its citizens.
'Laos has guaranteed that the Hmong returnees will not be mistreated and that independent observers will be allowed access to them,' Thai Foreign Ministry deputy spokesman Thani Thongpakdi said.
The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, however, has not been invited to monitor the repatriation process.
Thailand has repatriated 3,059 Hmong from Phetchabun to date with no confirmed cases of human rights violations, Abhisit said.
It was still unclear whether the government intended to send the remaining 4,000 Hmong back before a New Year's deadline, a manoeuvre that would draw international attention since many of the remaining Hmong have resisted past efforts to repatriate them.
'There's still some indecision as to the timeframe,' Thani said.
The Thai army, which now controls Ban Huay Nam Khao camp, is known to be keen to hasten the repatriation because it no longer has a budget to guard the refugees.
Tens of thousands of Hmong fled Laos after the Indochina War with most of them settling in the United States.
Your Talkback on this Story