Activist at Risk of Bogus Prosecution, Mistreatment in Cambodia (New York, December 11, 2018) – The Thai government should not forcibly return the dissident Rath Rott Mony to Cambodia, Human Rights Watch said today. There are strong reasons to believe that Mony would face politically motivated prosecution, wrongful detention, and ill-treatment in Cambodia. 

Amnesty International is alarmed by the detention and treatment of at least 168 Cambodian and Vietnamese asylum seekers and refugees in Thailand, and urges the Thai authorities to release them immediately pending the assessment of their asylum claims. Amnesty International has raised the issue of the treatment and deportation of asylum seekers and refugees with the Thai government in the past1, but regrettably we have seen the absence of concrete improvements in the protection of people seeking asylum in Thailand.

Nonthaburi authorities have arrested 168 refugees and asylum seekers from Vietnam and Cambodia, even though 154 of them are recognised by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). On 28 August 2018, district officials, the military, local police and Immigration Police raided a house in Bang Yai District in Nonthaburi to arrest 130 Vietnamese and 38 Cambodians. The raid took place at dawn after the authorities received a report that the 168 were connected to human trafficking networks. 60 of those arrested are children. 

Australia has granted asylum to a former senior Thai police officer investigating human trafficking, who was subject to death threats and intimidation after exposing the crimes of influential government and security officials.   The intimidation of Pol Maj Gen Paween Pongsirin began during his role as senior investigator into the trafficking of Rohingya Muslims in a case that involved 153 suspects and 103 defendants (62 of whom have been convicted) —Thailand’s largest human trafficking case.    The defendants included senior mili

A Thai civil society organisation has started a campaign to amend Thailand’s immigration law to grant temporary shelter for Rohingya refugees and other asylum seekers. Thai Committee for Refugees Foundation (TCR), a Thailand based CSO established to assist refugees and asylum seekers, opened a page on Change.org in order to collect names for a campaign called ‘Treat Them (asylum seekers) like Tourists’ to amend the Kingdom’s 1979 Immigration Act.