Read a version of this story in Vietnamese
Updated Feb. 25, 2025, 11:30 p.m. ET
More than 60 Montagnard asylum seekers face deportation to Vietnam after police raided a funeral near the Thai capital and transferred most of those detained to immigration authorities, according to refugee aid organization Boat People SOS.
Thai police later confirmed that more than 40 Vietnamese people had been detained for illegal entry but said they did not face the risk of immediate deportation.
The arrests in a raid on Sunday on a funeral service in a community hall in Nonthaburi province, just north of Bangkok, comes as the high-profile extradition case of Montagnard activist Y Quynh Bdap makes its way through the Thai court system.
Y Quynh Bdap fled with his family to Thailand in 2018 complaining of religious persecution in Vietnam.
He was granted refugee status by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, or UNHCR, but was arrested by Thai police in mid-2024 following an extradition request from Vietnam. Thailand has not ratified the 1951 refugee convention, which outlines the legal protection, rights and assistance a refugee is entitled to receive.
As a member of the Ede ethnic minority, he is classified as a Montagnard, a term used to describe members of mainly Christian minority groups who live in Vietnam’s Central Highlands.
Sunday’s funeral service was organized by Y Quynh Bdap’s wife for her mother, who recently died in Vietnam.
Most of those who attended were also from the Ede minority and had also fled to Thailand because of religious persecution, according to the U.S.-based Boat People SOS.
“They acted very quickly,” said Y Misin Knul, one of those arrested, referring to Thai authorities. “We requested attorneys to be present, but they rushed the process to avoid the attorneys.
“They collected our fingerprints and recorded the date,” he told Radio Free Asia on Monday. “They worked until about 1 or 2 a.m. to transfer us to immigration police.”
Montagnards activists among detained
Of the 68 people detained on the charges of illegal entry and residence, 43 possess refugee cards issued by the UNHCR in Thailand, Boat People SOS said.
It was unclear if the 43 could still eventually be deported if Vietnam requested their extradition.
Thailand has in recent years shown that it is willing to work with its authoritarian neighbors who have sought to clamp down on dissidents from those countries living in Thailand, human rights groups say.
However, a senior police officer told RFA authorities did not plan to return them to Vietnam, in the short term at least.
“They were tried for illegal entry and fined 4,000 baht (US$120) each. They did not have the money so they were jailed for eight days instead,” Col. Ronapat Tubtimtong, chief of police in the Bangyai district, said on Wednesday.
“They were not workers, they had refugee cards. After serving the terms, they will be held at Suan Plu detention center. Normally, NGOs would seek bail for them. They will not face immediate deportation.”
Ronapat added that some of the 68 initially detained were legally entitled to stay in Thailand and were released.
Also among those arrested were 27 members of Montagnards Stand For Justice, or MSFJ, a group that campaigns for the rights of members of about 30 indigenous minorities from the Central Highlands who say they have faced years of discrimination from Vietnamese authorities.
Some of the MSFJ members also hold refugee cards. Y Quynh Bdap is the founder of the group.
Last year, the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security designated MSFJ a terrorist organization, alleging that it was involved in a June 2023 attack on two public agencies in Dak Lak province in which nine people were killed.
MSFJ and Y Quynh Bdap have denied the accusation. If extradited to Vietnam, Y Quynh Bdap faces a 10-year prison sentence for “terrorism,” a charge issued in absentia by the Dak Lak People’s Court in January 2024 in connection with the 2023 violence.
In September 2024, the Bangkok Criminal Court ruled in favor of his extradition. This month, his attorney filed an appeal against that decision.
“We filed the appeal on Feb. 14th and called the [appeal court] every day to see if it accepted it but there has been no decision yet,” Nadthasiri Bergman, who represents Bdap, told RFA on Tuesday.
“The extradition involves considering Thailand’s new law -- the Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance Act, 2022,” she said, adding that there is no deadline for the court’s decision.
Thailand ‘increasingly precarious’
MSFJ founding member Y Phic Hdok told RFA that the 27 members of the group arrested on Sunday are also at risk of deportation.
“Since the Vietnamese government requested Thailand to arrest and extradite Y Quynh Bdap, the situation for Montagnard refugees in Thailand has become increasingly precarious,” he said.
“Although there is no clear evidence of Vietnam’s intervention in this incident, it also shows that the level of danger is growing,” he said.
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Some of the MSFJ members face a higher risk of extradition than others, Boat People SOS director Nguyen Dinh Thang said, adding that his organization, the UNHCR and the UN Human Rights Office in Thailand are closely monitoring the situation.
The Vietnamese government has yet to send Thailand an extradition list of the Montagnard arrestees – “possibly due to increasing international attention to Y Quynh Bdap’s case,” he said.
If Vietnam wanted Thailand to extradite any of the Montagnards arrested on Sunday, it would have to hold in-absentia trials, as it did with Y Quynh Bdap.
“Another extradition request would face significant challenges,” he said.
Updated to include comment from Thai police.
Pimuk Rakkanam in Bangkok contributed to this report.
Translated by Anna Vu. Edited by Matt Reed and Mike Firn.