The rejection of the deportation of Thai refugees causes a challenge Refugee News

This month, Thailand expelled three opposition activists recognized as refugees in Cambodia, even as violence against political dissidents escalated and another activist was killed in Phnom Penh on Sunday.

Thailand deported Veourn Veasna and Voeung Samnang on November 9, and Lanh Thavry on November 20. All three were members of the banned opposition political party, members of the Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP). It was dissolved by the Supreme Court in 2017 after a strong performance in that year’s municipal election.

The dissolution was strongly condemned by rights activists and democratic nations at the time, who saw the party as a politically motivated movement to avoid threatening Prime Minister Hun Sen with power for decades. Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party ran almost unopposed in the 2018 national elections, taking all 125 seats in parliament.

Thavry was one of 489 CNRP candidates selected as municipal chief in 2017, Samnang was deputy mayor and Veasna is a CNRP line announcer. Thavry has been accused of trying to oust the government for his attempt to return from exile to CNRP co-founder Sam Rainsy, while Veasna has been praised after posting a poem on Facebook about Hun Sen as a traitor. It was not immediately clarified what charges Samnang has. A fourth member of the CNRP, Mich Heang, was arrested in Thailand on Sunday, according to BenarNews, and remains in a detention center in Bangkok, even in the face of possible deportation.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) condemned the two sets of deportations, saying it had informed Thailand that all three had refugee status, and warned that there was a “serious risk of persecution” in Cambodia.

“This action violates the principle of non-refoulement, which forces states – including Thailand – not to expel them or to a territory where their lives or freedoms will be threatened,” the agency said in a statement on Tuesday, adding. He asked Thailand for “urgent instructions” on the matter.

The alarming rise in exiles comes on the back of escalating violence against Cambodian opposition activists.

On Sunday, CNRP activist Sin Khon was killed by unknown swordsmen near Wat Chas, in a pagoda where he was a disciple of a monk. The monk told the local VOD channel that Khon was attacked in May and received death threats. In April, the 16-year-old son of a CNRP official was hit in the head with a brick.

Chhay Kim Khoeun, a Cambodian police spokesman, denied that Phnom Penh had requested their extradition, and told Reuters news agency that all three had been deported for violating Thai immigration laws and arrested on arrival in Cambodia because they had an active arrest warrant. .

Lee Morgenbesser, a tenured professor at Griffith University in Australia and an expert on authoritarianism, said the partnership between Thailand and Cambodia “extends the de facto territorial scope of authoritarian regimes”. He said Cambodia has long been involved in these types of arrangements, for example extradition of Uighurs to China and Montagnards to Vietnam.

“Authoritarian collaboration may still be in its infancy, but it’s becoming more common,” he said. The deportation also has consequences for Myanmar dissidents, many of whom do He fled to Thailand after 10 years of democratic reform in the country since the February coup plunged the country into a military dictatorship.

Morgenbesser warned that dissidents will be an “obvious target,” but the Myanmar military will have to offer something to Thailand in return.

Increased care

CNRP vice president Mu Sochua told Al Jazeera that he was “populous and saddened by the lack of security in our town in Thailand.”

The party says it wants to write a letter in France or the US to discuss the issue with requesting a meeting with the Thai ambassador. Sochua is a dual nation, also has U.S. citizenship, and party leader Sam Rainsy has French citizenship. Thailand also partnered with Cambodia to prevent the return from exile in 2019, denying entry to Sochua in Bangkok immigration, and Rainsy refusing to allow it To take a Thai Airways flight from France.

“There is little that can be done if Thailand agrees to cooperate with Hun Sen,” Sochua acknowledged, but called on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to take action, warning that this would otherwise become “ASEAN’s failure to protect humans.” rights”.

Although Morgenbesser acknowledged that ASEAN has a “clear role” to tackle the problem, he added that it was very difficult for the bloc to really intervene, especially since Cambodia has just taken the chair by 2022.

Exiled Cambodian opposition leaders are calling for something to be done to protect ASEAN dissidents, but the country is now chairman of a 10-member group. [File: Handout via Reuters]

Human Rights Watch also condemned the exiles, saying in a statement that Cambodian refugees hiding in Bangkok in recent months have reported increased levels of surveillance and threats from unidentified Cambodian officials.

“Thailand’s actions are horrific and unacceptable for sending these three Cambodian refugees to harm, and should be condemned around the world,” Phil Robertson, the group’s Asian deputy director, told Al Jazeera. “EU countries will meet at the next ASEM meeting on Cambodia and Thailand on this horrific violation of refugee protection and rights, and demand an end to these forced deportations.”

ASEM, formally known as the Asia Europe Meeting, will be held on Thursday and Friday almost as a host for Cambodia.

Seng Mengbunrong, a CNRP youth activist who has been in Thailand for seven months, says he and other CNRP members feel “less secure” as a result of recent deportations.

“We don’t know when the Thai police [will] arrest us in Cambodia and we will go to jail, ”he said, accusing the Thai authorities of violating human rights and refugee rights.

But Mengbungron continued to challenge, despite threats, saying CNRP activists in Thailand “will not be silenced” and will continue to “fight to restore democracy in Cambodia”.