08/11/2004

About 15,000 Hmong refugees—Laotians who fled to Thailand—are beginning to resettle in the U.S., completing a journey to safety that Refugees International helped make possible.

With U.S. government assistance, they will join Hmong communities in California, Minnesota and Wisconsin, finally receiving refuge after 30 years of danger, flight and uncertainty.  RI was founded 25 years ago to promote the protection and resettlement of refugees from southeast Asia, and the arrival of a new group of Hmong is just the latest chapter in a long effort to find permanent homes for Asians displaced by decades of war.  But the current success is incomplete; the status of thousands of Hmong in Thailand remains unclear because they are not covered by the current U.S. resettlement program.  RI is campaigning to give them resettlement options as well.   

The latest group of Hmong is arriving from Wat Tham Krabok, a Buddhist temple compound in central Thailand.  Their movement reflects hard work by the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, which is making strong efforts to boost refugee resettlement in the U.S. to meet the Bush administration’s goals.

The story of the Hmong involves both betrayal and survival. The Hmong have been moving south from northern China for centuries, and they first came to Laos some 300 years ago.  When France colonized  Indochina (Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam)  in the 19th Century, some Hmong became trusted soldiers for the French.

Following the French defeat in Indochina in 1954, the U.S. became involved in fighting the spread of communism in the region.  The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency secretly enlisted the Hmong and expanded the number serving as soldiers, organizing them into Special Guerrilla Units.  In the late 1960s the units commanded by Hmong General Vang Pao fought the North Vietnamese Army to a standstill on the Plain of Jars in northern Laos.  This served the U.S. strategic aim of impeding North Vietnamese efforts to take over South Vietnam, but Hmong losses were extremely heavy.

Following the collapse of the American effort to defeat North Vietnam, the secret warriors were all but abandoned by U.S. leaders.  The U.S. moved Vang Pao and about 12,000 Hmong to a base in Thailand.  Many more had to make their way south to the Mekong River on their own to escape pursuing communist Lao forces.

By the summer of 1976 the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees had taken over the Hmong refugee camps in Thailand, and the U.S. decided to resettle about 5,000 Hmong  and other highlanders in the U.S.; other countries, chiefly France, Australia and Canada, also accepted some Hmong refugees.  Ultimately, about 200,000 Hmong and other highlanders fled from Laos to refuge in Thailand.  Most resettled as refugees in third countries.

Several thousand returned to Laos under the UNHCR voluntary repatriation plan commencing in the early 1990s.  Refugees International monitored the returnees and documented serious shortcomings in the development assistance needed for them to become self-sufficient.  Especially important was the lack of arable land.  Almost always the land allocated to returnees was marginal and needed irrigation to provide a useful agricultural yield, yet irrigation was almost never provided.  

The Hmong refugees in the UNHCR camps in Thailand heard about the problems facing returnees in Laos.  Despite UNHCR “mass information” campaigns aimed at the refugees, many feared to return to Laos for economic and/or political reasons.  But others in the UNHCR camps hesitated to leave for the U.S. because they feared they could not become self-sufficient there or held out hope for an eventual return to Laos.

In the mid-1990s, UNHCR laid down an ultimatum to the remaining Hmong and in camps in Thailand:  Either resettle abroad or return to Laos voluntarily.  Hmong refugees not choosing one path or the other would be subject to forced repatriation to Laos.

Faced with this Hobson’s choice, tens of thousands of Hmong fled from the UNHCR refugee camps in Thailand and faded into the countryside.  Perhaps 20,000 of these Hmong refugees settled at Wat Tham Krabok, a temple where they enjoyed the protection of a benevolent and influential abbot, and struggled to become self-sufficient.

Following the death of the abbot, pressure grew from the Thai government to move the Hmong at the Wat to a remote location.  RI and others pressed for the protection of the Hmong  at the Wat or their resettlement in the U.S.   Toward the end of 2003, the U.S. agreed to resettle up to 15,000 from the Wat.

At the beginning of 2004, Kelly Ryan, a senior State Department refugee official, headed a delegation to Thailand to make final plans for resettlement of the Hmong.  RI was instrumental in arranging for Hmong-American leader Ka Ying Yang (who is also a member of RI’s board of directors) to arrive at the Wat within days to head cultural orientation at the Wat.  Ka Ying’s early involvement and reputation with the Hmong community helped to advance the resettlement process.  A few weeks ago, the first of the Hmong refugees from the Wat arrived in the U.S.  By the end of the year, most will have arrived here.  

Some Hmong at the Wat cannot qualify for the United States refugee program or are unwilling to leave family members in nearby Laos.  They constitute a so-called “residual” population of Hmong at the Wat.  From the beginning of the U.S. resettlement initiative, RI has asked Thailand and the U.S. to define a long-term, durable status for the residual population.  The rapid U.S. resettlement performance should make it easier for the Thai government to be generous in its approach to the Hmong residual population.  

Finally, there is the issue of other Hmong refugees in Thailand, starting with Hmong who have lived at the Wat, but were not registered by the Thai military last year.  The U.S. only considered resettling Hmong who were on that list.  Some Hmong were afraid to come forward or were working outside the Wat when the military registration was conducted.  Such individuals are in many cases on a list maintained by Wat authorities and should be allowed to state a claim.  In addition there are Hmong refugees from UNHCR camps who have lived outside the Wat; some of them may have special claims.

Although RI applauds the U.S. government for its rapid resettlement of refugees from the Wat, RI also urges the State Department to expand the program by processing for resettlement Hmong who don’t meet the strict registration requirements.  

There are also newly arrived Hmong from Laos seeking refuge in Thailand.  This speaks to the need to end conflict in Laos and to establish a mechanism for Hmong to leave for the U.S. and other countries directly from Laos.

As it has for 25 years, RI will continue to work to give the Hmong—and all refugees—safe options to return home, stay in their country of refuge or resettle in a third country.

Lionel Rosenblatt, RI’s president emeritus, has worked for decades to protect the Hmong and made two trips to Wat Tham Krabok in the last year.

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For more information on the resettlement effort for the Hmong, please see the following article from the August 8 edition of The New York Times, which features RI Board Member KaYing Yang.

Indochina War Refugees Find Homes at Last, in U.S.