Thailand has received a report from the UN Human Rights Council about its alleged involvement in cross-border human rights violations. Similar reports have been delivered simultaneously to Cambodia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Viet Nam, China, Malaysia and ASEAN, detailing apparent international collusion in killings, enforced disappearances and other crimes.

The reports were produced jointly by three Working Groups and nine Special Rapporteurs under the UN Human Rights Council, part of the Council’s so-called special procedures. The report on Thailand is dated 24 July 2025. Such reports are normally not made public until the government has had time to respond.

Human rights organisations in Thailand and elsewhere have long suspected that the security forces of Thailand, Lao PDR, Cambodia and Viet Nam have been allowed to operate in each other’s countries and are responsible for a number of human rights violations.

The 28-page report documents the killings and enforced disappearance of Thai activists and members of the opposition in Cambodia, Lao PDR and Viet Nam. It also catalogues the killing, forced returns, harassment and risk of refoulement in Thailand of Cambodian activists and members of the opposition; the killings and enforced disappearances in Thailand of Lao activists and human rights defenders; and the enforced disappearances, detention of opposition members and risk of refoulement in Thailand of Vietnamese activists and human rights defenders.

It also details intimidation and harassment of Vietnamese Montagnards and Hmong refugees by the Thai authorities and the Thai government’s acquiescence in the designation of Vietnamese diaspora civil society organizations as terrorist organizations.

The report stresses that the allegations of official wrong-doing have not yet been proven, but expresses ‘profound concern’ at the reported rise in transnational repression, ‘to deter, silence or punish dissent, criticism or human rights advocacy’, made by individuals outside their country.’

The individual cases have all been previously reported in Prachatai and other media outlets in Thailand, but the UN report is a useful and sobering compendium of the way that the Thai government, under a number of administrations, seems to have cooperated with the security apparatus of neighbouring countries whose human rights records are generally condemned.

The Thai government is asked to provide updates on investigations into killings and search activities concerning all cases of enforced disappearance. Thailand is also asked to confirm whether officials from the Government of Viet Nam were granted access to Vietnamese nationals held in immigration detention centres.