Submitted by crinadmin on
Some 23 ethnic Hmong children risk torture and other ill-treatment while being held in an undisclosed location in Laos. Deemed “illegal” immigrants by the Thai authorities, they were arrested in November 2005 whilst visiting a church, and deported on 5 December. They have been in detention since then, for no known reason; separated from their parents and families for more than four months. According to sources, the children – 20 of whom are girls – have endured appalling conditions. Aged 12 to 16, they are said to be “in bad condition”, and to have suffered ill-treatment. Some of them may have been tortured. The children were living among a community of some 6,000 Hmong refugees in the Thai village of Ban Huay Nam Khao. Many of the refugees claim to have sought sanctuary in Thailand after being persecuted for their connection to the armed resistance against the Lao government. But the Thai government defines them as illegal immigrants while the Lao authorities do not believe them to be of Lao nationality. The community thus clings precariously to its position, rejected by one country and unrecognized by another. Despite the children’s detention in Laos, reportedly in a village in Bolikhamsay province east of the capital Vientiane, the authorities continue to deny any responsibility. They claim they are searching for the children, but have refused offers of humanitarian assistance from UN agencies and international missions to help reconcile them with their families. Update: 09 May 2006 They are now known to be held in two separate facilities: 20 girls aged between 12 and 16, and two women, are detained at a prison attached to an army base outside Paksen, 200km east of the capital, Vientiane. Two boys and three men, who had been held in Vientiane, have now been moved to a detention facility in Phongsaly, in the north of the country.
The group of ethnic Hmong Laotians forcibly returned to Laos on 5 December are now known to number 27, of whom 22 are children. They are still held incommunicado, and are reported to have been ill-treated. Some of them may have been tortured.