Thai police on Friday arrested 12 Khmer Krom refugees found working illegally in Thailand, taking them to a detention center for processing and trial for entering the country without permission, sources told RFA.
The group, including 7 men and 5 women, were taken into custody at a vegetable market in central Thailand’s Phatum Thani province, said another member of the ethnic group who escaped arrest because she had arrived late for work.
“I got there about 5 minutes late — otherwise I would also have been detained,” RFA’s source named Chanthy said, adding that when she arrived she saw four uniformed Thai police officers put the 12 refugees into a police van and take them away.
The group are now being held by Phathum Thani Immigration Police for eventual return to Vietnam, where the ethnic Khmer Krom, natives of a region formerly a part of southeastern Cambodia, regularly complain of persecution by Vietnamese authorities.
Members of the ethnic group also face suspicion in Cambodia, where the Khmer Krom are perceived not as Cambodians but as Vietnamese.
Chanthy called on refugee assistance groups to urge Thai authorities to release all Khmer Krom detained in Thailand. “One is my own son-in-law, whose wife has a 5-month-old baby who needs a father,” she said.
Also speaking to RFA, a Khmer Krom refugee named Si Veth, who escaped from Vietnam to Thailand 5 years ago, said her father and mother were among the group of 12 arrested Friday at the market in Phatum Thani.
“They had only wanted to work there to earn money because they are living as refugees in Thailand, where it is difficult to find a legal job,” she said, calling on U.N. refugee officials to intervene with Thai authorities to secure the group’s release.
Official status as refugees
More than 200 Khmer Krom are now believed to be living in Thailand, where many have official status as refugees granted by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).
President of the Khmer Krom Refugee Association in Thailand Lim Keo said the 12 now being held will face trial on charges of entering and working in the country illegally. He urged U.N. officials in Thailand to pressure government authorities to free all Khmer Krom now detained in Thailand.
“I’m not sure how to help this particular group, though. Some may already have refugee status, and others may not,” he added.
Venerable Son Yoeung Ratana, a Buddhist monk and information director for the U.S.-based Khmer Kampuchea Krom Federation, said that members of the Khmer Krom community are leaving Vietnam because they face government persecution after asking for their rights as an indigenous group.
”The Khmer Kampuchea Krom Federation urges Thai authorities to release the Khmer Krom refugees so they can regain their freedom,” he said. “We also urge the UNHCR to speed up the process providing those asylum seekers with refugee status so they can live legally in Thailand,” he added.
Sources have accused Vietnamese authorities of confiscating Khmer Krom land in Vietnam and of restricting religious and other traditional observances of the group, along with the teaching of Khmer script to Khmer children.
Translated by Samean Yun for RFA Khmer. Written in English by Richard Finney.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.
By RFA Khmer | Radio Free (2022-10-14T20:06:00+00:00) Thai police arrest 12 Khmer Krom refugees from Vietnam. Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2022/10/14/thai-police-arrest-12-khmer-krom-refugees-from-vietnam/
Please log in to upload a file.
There are no updates yet.
Click the Upload button above to add an update.