About 2,000 ethnic Hmong from Laos have agreed to return to return home after a mass breakout from a Thai detention centre. They marched out of the camp trying to bring attention to their claims for asylum. Some say they were offered $500 per family from the Los government to return home. That's the equivalent of half a year's wage in the impoverished nation. But 3,000 Hmong refuse to go back and they are demanding urgent help from the United Nations' refugees agency, Al Jazeera's Hannah Belcher reports.
Comments
It is definitely genocide and has been ever since 1975 for the Hmong people who were left in the jungle to fend for themselves against all odds. The undeniable truth is that the "jungle" Hmong have suffered decades of inhumane treatment by the Laotian military and the fact that this situation has not improved in the past three decades is beyond comprehension.
They should've been rescued decades ago. How is it possible that they have been left to such a cruel fate for all of these years when the solution - as you wrote - is fairly simple. The Lao government and military chose to imprison, torture and kill them v.s. simply allowing them to assimilate into their society and live productive peaceful lives in Laos.
I'm uncertain if 100,000 other Hmongs are doing "OK" is a true statement. If this were the case, why were the 5,000 - 8,000 Hmong refugees (recently involved in the protest march in Thailand) terrified for their life upon learning of the Thai government's plans to repatriate them back to Laos?
The pictures that you attached were beautiful and do paint a vastly different picture of Hmong life in Laos, in comparison to hundreds of other reports, articles and documentaries produced in the past few years.
When I visited the refugee camp at Wat Thamkrabok in 2004, the day before the resettlement of 15,000 Hmongs, what I witnessed was a community of over 40,000 impoverished refugees desperate for a better and free life.
Please view my photos and other related articles at: http//:www.xanga.com/Hmong_Apsara
Your comment stating that: "The large number of the repats won't have much trouble, if any, other than finding housing, farms, jobs, etc, in their old village or village area. Some of the 800 are, tho, "jungle" Hmong and may have trouble, then there appears to be a few "leaders" in the group who may well be in deep shit."
They were simply dropped off on the roadside. It is hard to imagine that they won't have much trouble without assistance of some sort.
Thank you for your pictures and comments. The Hmong situation in Thailand and Laos is dire and needs our urgent attention and action. 5,000 - 8,000 Hmong left the refugee camp to protest to the UN, but they never arrived at their destination. Please help them by forwarding the news of their plight onward to media contacts, friends and associates.
Few Americans even know who the Hmong are except in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Nor do they know anything about their present struggle or their role in supporting the U.S. during the Secret War in Laos. Tragically, the Hmong gave the U.S. everything and in return they were left behind to die.
Kind Regards,
Prisana Nuechterlein