Expulsion of refugees from Thailand leads to opposition, disobedience | Refugee Stories

This month, Thailand has expelled three suspected Cambodian refugees, despite increasing violence against anti-apartheid activists and a freedom fighter killed in Phnom Penh on Sunday.

Thailand expelled Veourn Veasna and Voeung Samnang on November 9, and Lanh Thavry on November 20. All three were members of a banned opposition party, the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), which was. was abolished by the Supreme Court in 2017 having done well in the by-elections that year.

The crackdown was strongly opposed at the time by freedom fighters and democracies, who saw it as a political way to prevent the party from threatening Prime Minister Hun Sen for decades in power. The Hun Sen Party of the Cambodian People’s Party continued unopposed in the 2018 elections, taking all 125 seats in parliament.

Thavry was one of the CNRP 489 nominees elected mayor of 2017, while Samnang was second in command of the commune and Veasna is CNRP’s online broadcaster. Thavry is accused of plotting to overthrow the government for helping CNRP co-founder Sam Rainsy attempt to return from exile, while Veasna was accused of inciting people to write a Facebook poem about Hun Sen as a fraud. The charges against Samnang are still unknown. A fourth CNRP member, Mich Heang, was arrested in Thailand on Sunday according to BenarNews and remains in jail in Bangkok facing re-arrest.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has denounced both groups of deportees, saying they had informed Thailand that all three were refugees, and warned that they were “at high risk of persecution” in Cambodia.

“This is in violation of the anti-retaliatory policy, which forces countries – including Thailand – not to deport or deport people to areas where their lives or freedoms may be at stake,” the commission said Tuesday, adding that it had requested “urgent clarification” from Thailand on the issue.

An alarming increase in deportations comes in the wake of violent protests against protesters in Cambodia.

On Sunday, CNRP freedom fighter Sin Khon was assassinated by unknown assailants near Wat Chas, a pagoda while a student monk. The monk told the VOD station that Khon had been beaten in May and had been threatened with death. In April, a 16-year-old son of a CNRP official was injured when he was struck on the head with a brick.

Cambodian police spokesman Chhay Kim Khoeun denied that Phnom Penh had asked for his release, telling Reuters that all three had been deported for violating Thai immigration laws and had been arrested on arrival in Cambodia because of their co-existence. .

Lee Morgenbesser, a senior lecturer at the University of Griffith, Australia, and a specialist in authoritarianism, said the alliance between Thailand and Cambodia “expands access to the territories of authoritarian regimes”. He said Cambodia has been involved in this process, as per shipping Uighurs to China and Montagnards to Vietnam.

“The power struggle may be in its infancy, but it ‘s growing more and more,” he said. The expulsion also affected protesters in Myanmar, many of whom had done so fled to Thailand since February the overthrow of the government has put the country back in a state of war after 10 years of democratic change.

Morgenbesser warned that the protesters would be an “obvious target”, but said Myanmar troops would need to offer something to Thailand.

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The Vice President of CNRP, In Sochua, told Al Jazeera that he was “deeply concerned and saddened by the insecurity of our people in Thailand”.

He said the party was preparing to write a letter requesting a meeting with the Thai ambassador to France or the US to discuss the matter. Sochua is a dual country, also an American citizen, while party leader Sam Rainsy is a French citizen. Thailand reunited with Cambodia to ban their return to slavery in 2019, denying Sochua entry into Bangkok, and refusing to allow Rainsy boarding Thai Airways flight from France.

“There is not much that can be done if Thailand agrees to join Hun Sen,” Sochua acknowledged, but called on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to take action, warning that this would be “ASEAN’s failure to protect human rights.”

While Morgenbesser acknowledges ASEAN’s “responsibility” for tackling the problem, he said it was unlikely the bloc would intervene, especially after Cambodia took office in 2022.

Opposition leaders in captivity in Cambodia are urging ASEAN to take action to protect the protesters, but the country now has a 10-member seat. [File: Handout via Reuters]

Human Rights Watch has also spoken out in its criticism of the deportees, saying in recent months Cambodian refugees fleeing Bangkok have also reported an increase in the number of refugees and intimidation of unknown individuals believed to be Cambodian officials.

“Thailand’s practice of repatriating three Cambodian refugees in a dangerous manner is tantamount to illegal, and should be condemned worldwide,” Phil Robertson, deputy leader of the Asian group, told Al Jazeera. “The EU member states meeting at the upcoming ASEM summit should call on both Cambodia and Thailand to seriously violate the protection and protection of refugees, and to end this expulsion.”

ASEM, known as the Asia Europe Meeting, is due to be held on Thursday and Friday while Cambodia is hosting.

Seng Mengbunrong, a CNRP teenager who has been in Thailand for seven months, says he and other members of the CNRP feel “insecure” as a result of the recent expulsion.

“We do not know when the Thai police [will] we will be arrested and sent back to Cambodia and imprisoned, ”he said, criticizing Thai government officials for violating human rights and the rights of refugees.

But Mengbunrong remained adamant, saying that despite threats, CNRP freedom fighters in Thailand “remain silent” and will continue to “fight for the restoration of democracy in Cambodia”.