FORCED REPATRIATION OF HMONG REFUGEES TO LAOS DENOUNCED
From Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)
Contact: Emily Linendoll: +1-212-763-5764
Bangkok/Paris/New York, May 20, 2009 — The international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without
Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) today denounced growing pressure applied by Thailand’s army to force 5,000
Hmong refugees living in Huai Nam Khao camp in northern Thailand to return to Laos. Increasingly restrictive
measures have forced MSF to cease its assistance activities after some four years of being present in the camp.
The Thai and Laotian governments effectively reasserted last March that they aim to repatriate all the Hmong back to
Laos before the end of the year, and without any external supervision. The number of refugees being repatriated has
increased since December 2008, reaching 500 last March.
Click here to read the MSF briefing paper: Hidden Behind Barbed Wire
Over the last four months, the Thai army, which is present in the camp, has introduced increasingly restrictive measures
with the aim of pressuring the Hmong into dropping their demands for refugee status and returning “voluntarily” to Laos.
The refugees talk of arbitrary arrests and cases of forced repatriation.
Moreover, MSF denounces the methods employed by the Thai authorities, who have stamped out any possibility of
offering independent humanitarian assistance to the camp’s refugee population, including by restricting the population’
s freedom of access to MSF services, and using multiple military checks on the Hmong population and MSF staff. In
light of these conditions, MSF has decided to stop its activities in the camp.
“We can no longer work in a camp where the military uses arbitrary imprisonment of influential leaders to pressure
refugees into a “voluntary” return to Laos, and forces our patients to pass through military checkpoints to access our
medical clinic,” said Gilles Isard, MSF head of mission in Thailand.
MSF once again calls on the governments of Thailand and Laos to:
Stop the forced repatriation of Hmong refugees in Huai Nam Khao and allow an independent third party to review
refugee status determinations;
Allow an independent third party to assess the areas of return and the adequacy of assistance offered, monitor all
repatriations, verify the voluntary nature of returns, and ensure the continued safety of returnees.
Furthermore, MSF requests any States that have already resettled Hmong—or could be ready to do so—to offer them an
alternative in accordance with international law in terms of protection of people fleeing persecution.
MSF has been providing medical and sanitation assistance to some 7,500 refugees in the Petchabun camp since 2005.
Less than 5,000 still remain. It has been the only international organization present, and could provide firsthand
accounts of events in the camp. MSF also works in Maesot, on the Myanmar border, offering care for patients with
tuberculosis and living with HIV/AIDS. Other teams work in Phang Nga, providing access to health care for Myanmar
migrants, and in Sangklaburi, where they run a cross-border malaria project supporting ethnic Mon living inside Mon
State (Myanmar).
Contact: Emily Linendoll: +1-212-763-5764
Bangkok/Paris/New York, May 20, 2009 — The international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without
Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) today denounced growing pressure applied by Thailand’s army to force 5,000
Hmong refugees living in Huai Nam Khao camp in northern Thailand to return to Laos. Increasingly restrictive
measures have forced MSF to cease its assistance activities after some four years of being present in the camp.
The Thai and Laotian governments effectively reasserted last March that they aim to repatriate all the Hmong back to
Laos before the end of the year, and without any external supervision. The number of refugees being repatriated has
increased since December 2008, reaching 500 last March.
Click here to read the MSF briefing paper: Hidden Behind Barbed Wire
Over the last four months, the Thai army, which is present in the camp, has introduced increasingly restrictive measures
with the aim of pressuring the Hmong into dropping their demands for refugee status and returning “voluntarily” to Laos.
The refugees talk of arbitrary arrests and cases of forced repatriation.
Moreover, MSF denounces the methods employed by the Thai authorities, who have stamped out any possibility of
offering independent humanitarian assistance to the camp’s refugee population, including by restricting the population’
s freedom of access to MSF services, and using multiple military checks on the Hmong population and MSF staff. In
light of these conditions, MSF has decided to stop its activities in the camp.
“We can no longer work in a camp where the military uses arbitrary imprisonment of influential leaders to pressure
refugees into a “voluntary” return to Laos, and forces our patients to pass through military checkpoints to access our
medical clinic,” said Gilles Isard, MSF head of mission in Thailand.
MSF once again calls on the governments of Thailand and Laos to:
Stop the forced repatriation of Hmong refugees in Huai Nam Khao and allow an independent third party to review
refugee status determinations;
Allow an independent third party to assess the areas of return and the adequacy of assistance offered, monitor all
repatriations, verify the voluntary nature of returns, and ensure the continued safety of returnees.
Furthermore, MSF requests any States that have already resettled Hmong—or could be ready to do so—to offer them an
alternative in accordance with international law in terms of protection of people fleeing persecution.
MSF has been providing medical and sanitation assistance to some 7,500 refugees in the Petchabun camp since 2005.
Less than 5,000 still remain. It has been the only international organization present, and could provide firsthand
accounts of events in the camp. MSF also works in Maesot, on the Myanmar border, offering care for patients with
tuberculosis and living with HIV/AIDS. Other teams work in Phang Nga, providing access to health care for Myanmar
migrants, and in Sangklaburi, where they run a cross-border malaria project supporting ethnic Mon living inside Mon
State (Myanmar).