Medical aid agency urges Thailand to halt repatriation of 8,000 Hmong to Laos

A humanitarian aid organization urged Thailand on Wednesday not to forcibly repatriate nearly 8,000 ethnic Hmong people from their refugee camp back to Laos, fearing they would face persecution in the communist country.

"We demand that Thailand stop the forced repatriation of the Hmong and that these people be given access to a proper and objective screening process carried out by an independent agency," said Gilles Isard, head of the Thailand mission of France-based Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders.

More than 300,000 Laotians, mostly Hmong, fled to Thailand after the communist takeover of their country in 1975. Most were resettled in third countries, particularly the United States, although several thousand were voluntarily repatriated. Others reached an accommodation with the new government, while several thousand continue to hide out in the jungles of Laos, where they are hunted by the military.

Nearly 8,000 of the fleeing Hmong ended up in an informal settlement in Huay Nam Khao village in Thailand's northeastern province of Phetchabun, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the Laotian border.

Thai authorities have said they will begin a screening process to determine which of the Hmong should be sent home.

The Hmong say they will be persecuted if they return to Laos. Some fought on the side of a pro-U.S. Laotian government in the 1960s and 1970s before the communist takeover.

Thailand, however, says that most of the 8,000 Hmong are not legitimate refugees, and have violated Thai law by entering the country illegally.

"We are very clear about this. These people quite simply are illegal immigrants. They need to understand they are a burden on Thailand," said a Thai military commander in charge of Hmong refugee affairs, Lt. Gen. Nipat Thonglek. He said Thailand has not set a deadline, but plans to repatriate them "as soon as possible. Maybe a year, maybe longer."

Both Thai and Lao officials have rejected any international oversight in the screening process. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has repeatedly asked to take part in the process to verify whether the refugees' fears of persecution are genuine.

MSF has provided food, sanitation and medical treatment to the Hmong in Phetchabun since July 2005.

MSF said the Hmong have suffered psychologically more than physically because of their fear of deportation.

"Most of the people we see are extremely traumatized by what they went through in the past in Laos," said an MSF field staffer, Daniela Abadi. "It is difficult for us to give proper relief to people whose main symptoms are fear, fear to go back to Laos, fear to live every day. They prepare to commit suicide rather than be sent back."

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Associated Press writer Mick Elmore contributed to this report.