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Laos without refugee status to be d
- Subject: Laos without refugee status to be d
- From: suriya@xxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 09 Nov 1998 01:06:00
Subject: Laos without refugee status to be deported
Politics
Laos without refugee
status to be deported
THAI, Laotian and UN High Commission for
Refugees (UNHCR) officials have agreed
that Laotians in a Nakhon Phanom camp
who do not hold refugee status will have to
return home by the end of next year, ending
more than a decade of residence on Thai
soil.
The three parties also agreed at a meeting
last week that another group of Laotians
who were screened as refugees would be
allowed to go to a third country within the
same period.
A Thai source who attended the meeting
said that the UNHCR will assist the group of
1,155 Laotians return home and choose
their resettlement areas there.
The source admitted that many of the 1,155
Laotians were not willing to return, but
under the CPA, those who had no refugee
status will have to enter ''the organised
return'' programme to go home.
The group of Laotians will return home
under the Comprehensive Plan of Action,
which states that refugees should return
home when they have no fear and their
home country is ready to receive them, the
source said.
''Now that the situation in Laos is returning
to normal and the country is ready to
receive their men, we therefore believe the
Laotians should not have any fear of
returning to their home,'' the source said.
Meanwhile a Laotian source attending the
meeting said that his country is willing to
see the return of Laotians on voluntary
basis.
However, he said that more details have to
be discussed in the future because it
seemed that those who would have to
return under the term are not willing to go
home.
''We cannot accept those who do not want
to go home,'' he said.
He added that the issue will be discussed
at the Thai-Laos Joint Commission
meeting scheduled to be held today until
Wednesday.
The group is now residing in a camp in
Nakhon Phanom's Ban Napho district. They
are the last group of Laotians who have
escaped to Thai soil since the 1980s. Many
of them were allowed to go to a third
country, while the others have already
returned home.
Thai and Laotian authorities have worked
with the UNHCR to set deadlines for the
Laotians, in the hope that Thailand can
close all the refugee camps for Laotian and
Cambodian refugees on Thai soil. However
the deadlines have had to be postponed as
Laotians feared prosecution upon their
return to Laos.
The Thai source said that the UNHCR
informed the meeting that it wished to move
the Laotians out by next June, mainly
because of financial problems.
UNHCR regional representative Amelia
Bonifacio said that setting a target date
might help the process move more quickly,
but that the date was not yet finalised.
''Our agency continues to get the support
from the donor communities. But we know
that it cannot last forever and therefore we
cannot say that the money can be there
anymore by June,'' she said.
BY MARISA CHIMPRABHA
The Nation