UPDATED on May 16, 2024 at 10:25 a.m. ET.
Thailand has been helping neighboring countries repress refugees and dissidents, making a country that was long a haven for exiles unsafe for those fleeing persecution, a human rights group said on Thursday.
In a report titled "'We thought we were safe' - Repression and Forced Return of Refugees in Thailand" New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Thailand facilitated "surveillance, violence, abductions, enforced disappearances and forced returns" while Thai authorities in turn engaged in acts of "transnational repression" against Thai activists in exile.
“Governments in Southeast Asia have long been suspected of engaging in quid-pro-quo agreements about refugees and asylum seekers, colloquially known as ‘swap mart’ arrangements,” the rights group said.
Human Rights Watch said the then government of Prayuth Chan-o-cha, a Thai army chief who toppled a civilian government in May 2014, repressed dissidents from abroad, including from Cambodia, Vietnam and China.
“Thailand has long had a reputation as a sanctuary for those fleeing persecution … But now many asylum seekers and refugees do not feel safe,” Elaine Pearson, director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia Division told RFA-affiliate BenarNews.
The repression in Thailand had often occurred even though the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees had recognized the dissidents as refugees, the rights group said.
HRW analyzed 25 cases that it said took place in Thailand between 2014 and 2023.
When asked about HRW's findings, Nikorndej Balankura, spokesperson for Thailand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told BenarNews that Bangkok is "committed to respecting and upholding humanitarian principles, including the principle of non-refoulement," adding that the government is cooperating with partners to provide support and assistance, as well as "durable solutions" for asylum seekers.
Balankura noted that Thailand's Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance Act of 2022 prohibits government agencies and officers from repatriating foreign nationals if there are reasonable grounds they will be subjected to torture or enforced disappearance upon their return.
"This regulation should serve as a deterrent to the alleged actions, which if they actually took place, will be subjected to legal procedures under the Act," he said.
BenarNews also tried to contact Chai Watcharong, spokesman for the Prime Minister’s Office, and Maj. Gen. Choengron Rimpadee, spokesman for the police’s Immigration Bureau, to seek comment on the report, but they did not immediately respond.
Dead and disappeared
A year after the Thai coup, Chinese dissidents in Thailand started going missing, the group said, suggesting that Thai authorities had acted “apparently at the request of the Chinese government, for arrest and refoulement to China.”
In November 2015, democracy activists Jiang Yefei and Dong Guangping, who fled China and received refugee status from the UNHCR, were deported from Thailand to China shortly after their arrests. The deportations occurred even though Canada had granted them asylum.
In July 2015, Thai authorities deported at least 109 ethnic Uyghurs to China. They were among more than 500 Uyghurs who fled China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region to Southeast Asian countries in 2013 and 2014, according to Thai officials and NGOs. Turkey had offered many of them asylum.
Thailand’s then-military government, facing criticism from the United States and other Western countries over the 2014 coup, was keen to forge closer ties with China, analysts said.
While Thai authorities moved against foreign dissidents, Thai activists seeking refuge in neighboring countries also faced repression.
Several left-wing dissidents who left Thailand after the 2014 coup disappeared in Cambodia and Laos, with two found dead in the Mekong river, which forms the border between Thailand and Laos.
In 2020, prominent Thai activist Wanchalearm Satsaksit, was allegedly abducted in broad daylight by gunmen from in front of his apartment complex in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh. He remains missing.
Human rights activists believed that Thailand and Cambodia had agreed on his abduction. Both governments denied any involvement.
‘Disappointing’
Human Rights Watch said Cambodian opposition members and activists made up a sizable number of the cases it had documented in Thailand, practices that it said were facilitated by the close relationship between the neighbors then leaders, Prayuth and Cambodia’s Hun Sen.
While the rights group said the existence of “swap mart” arrangements between governments was difficult to verify with respect to Thailand, “arrangements with other abusive governments to facilitate transnational repression would be consistent with the evidence gathered.”
Despite the restoration of an elected government in Thailand last year, the ill-treatment of dissidents has continued, Human Rights Watch said. It said an end to the “swap market” was an “urgent obligation” for the government.
Worachat Awipan, a scholar at the Institute of Religion, Culture and Peace at Payap University, told Benar that Thailand’s actions reflected badly on its image and violated its international human rights obligations.
“If we truly want to resolve this issue, we must strictly respect and comply with the obligation to not force people back to places where they are not safe, and seriously and transparently investigate and punish Thai officials who support these legal violations," Worachat said.
Sunai Phasuk, a senior HRW researcher, said the Thai government had promised to end the legacy of military rule but it was turning a blind eye to allegations of harassment, and forced returns of refugees while there were no serious investigations into the disappearance of Thai dissidents elsewhere.
“It is very disappointing,” Sunai said.
Edited by Mike Firn.
BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news organization.
This story has been updated to include comments from Nikorndej Balankura, spokesperson for Thailand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.