By Rungrawee C. Pinyorat
10/01/2005

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Below is an excerpt of an article from the Associated Press:

HUAY NAM KHAO, Thailand — When July began, some 6,000 ethnic Hmong living in this village in northern Thailand could count on little but the flimsy roofs sheltering them from rainy-season downpours.

Within days, those ramshackle homes were just a memory for the illegal migrants from neighboring Laos, including many children. Thai authorities pressured the village to evict the Hmong, and they were cast out of town.

Now they make do in a squatter community along the roadside, and even that may not last. Some officials in this Southeast Asian nation want to send them back to their homeland.

...

In May this year, an unofficial camp that sprang up around a Buddhist temple in central Thailand was closed. Some 10,000 Hmong from the camp at Wat Tham Krabok were relocated to the United States, with an additional 5,300 expected to follow.

Officials considered Tham Krabok a big headache, saying it was a haven for drug dealing and a center for armed resistance to the Lao government, with which Thailand has good relations. The government worries the same could happen in Phetchabun.

Lionel Rosenblatt, president emeritus of the Washington-based group Refugees International, said the 30-year saga of Hmong refugees shows that "these sorts of refugee flows never end neatly."

Describing the 6,000 Hmong in Phetchabun as a "manageable challenge," he said Thai authorities should provide protection for those who are genuine political refugees and find an acceptable solution for the others.

"I would hate that the last chapter of the Indochina refugee drama should be that Thai authorities rounded up people and sent them back to an unknown fate," Rosenblatt said.