- Human Rights Watch called on Thailand to stop deporting dissidents to their dangerous home countries for violating international law.
- The report documents instances in which Thai authorities expel dissidents awaiting resettlement, many of which involve Cambodians.
- The Thai government is said to have been working with neighboring countries to spy on dissidents.
A leading international human rights organization on Thursday called on the Thai government to forcibly return political dissidents who fled to Thailand seeking safety back to their home countries in the authoritarian state, where they could face torture, persecution and death. I asked him to stop doing that.
In a new report, Human Rights Watch finds that Thai authorities have repeatedly violated international law by expelling dissidents, many of whom are registered as refugees with the United Nations and are unable to be reinstated in third countries. He said he was waiting to be settled.
The report, titled ‘We thought we were safe’, analyzed 25 incidents that took place in Thailand between 2014 and 2023.
Thai Prime Minister orders investigation after death of monarchist reform activist in prison
Many of the incidents involve the forced repatriation of Cambodians, and Cambodian security personnel are suspected of involvement. But the group also listed cases in which dissidents in Vietnam, Laos and China were “tracked and abducted” or “forced to disappear or be killed.”
Thai rescue workers cover a dead body on the banks of the Mekong River in Nakhon Phanom province, northeast of Bangkok, on December 27, 2018. On Thursday, a leading international human rights organization called on the Thai government to stop coercing dissidents who have fled to Thailand. This is to ensure they can safely return to their home countries in authoritarian countries where they may face torture, persecution and death. (AP photo, file)
Instead of tracking down and repatriating dissidents, the report said, the Thai government enlisted help from Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam to monitor Thai dissidents who had fled their homeland to escape political repression. That’s what it means.
Human Rights Watch called it a quid pro quo form of cross-border repression that “effectively exchanges foreign dissidents for Thai government critics living abroad.”
The group said such arrangements, known informally as “swap marts,” have become increasingly common since the Thai military staged a coup to overthrow the elected government in 2024. . The military and military-backed rule continued for 10 years until last year when an elected civilian government led by Prime Minister Suretta Tabisin took office.
“The Suretta government should launch an investigation into allegations of harassment, surveillance and deportation of asylum seekers and refugees in Thailand. It should also investigate the disappearances of Thai anti-junta activists in other Southeast Asian countries. ” said Human Director Elaine Pearson. Rights Watch’s Asia division told The Associated Press.
“I think there is an opportunity to end this practice and show that the Suretta government is different from previous military-led governments,” she added.
He pointed out that the Thai government is currently aiming to become a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council, which “comes with a responsibility to protect human rights.”
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The report lists nine cases of Thai activists who have disappeared or been killed under mysterious circumstances in Laos and Cambodia.
In late 2018, the dismembered bodies of two missing activists were found floating in the Mekong River. In 2020, young Thai activist Wanchariam Sasaksit was snatched on the street in Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh and has since been unable to be heard from.
Thai authorities have repeatedly denied any connection to these incidents.
Dr. Francesca Ressa, associate professor of international relations at University College London, said the idea is similar to the way autocratic governments in Latin America struck agreements to work together to eliminate political rivals in each other’s territories in the late 1970s and 1980s. He said there is a point.
“Whether they follow right-wing or left-wing ideologies, these authoritarian governments view dissidents and dissidents as a threat to the survival of their power and therefore to be eliminated by any means necessary.” Ressa told The Associated Press.
