BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - Thailand will return some 8,000 ethnic Hmong refugees to Laos despite their claims that they face persecution in their homeland, the Thai prime minister said Monday.
Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont asserted that most of the refugees did not have legitimate asylum claims, but said an unspecified third country would be asked to monitor their repatriation to assure they were not abused.
Members of Laos' Hmong minority served in a CIA-backed guerrilla army that fought against Lao communists in the 1960s and 1970s. The refugees claim that as a result they face political persecution and possible harm in communist Laos.
Thirteen members of the U.S. House of Representatives sent a recent letter to Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej asking him to stop the forcible repatriation of the Hmong.
Human rights groups and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees also have expressed concern for the Hmong, in large part because the government of Laos does not allow free monitoring of their condition.
Surayud said the matter had been discussed with Laos and ``we will make sure representatives from a third country are present to prevent human rights abuse as we send them back.''
Surayud said the country overseeing the repatriations would likely be a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, to which both Thailand and Laos belong. He did not say when the repatriation might occur.
Most of the refugees are at an unofficial refugee camp in the northern Thai province of Phetchabun,
``If they entered the country illegally, then it is an issue that has to be taken care of, since there is no fighting going on now in our neighboring country,'' Surayud told reporters.
More than 300,000 Laotians, mostly Hmong, are known to have fled to Thailand since the communist takeover in 1975. Most were either repatriated to Laos or resettled in other countries, most in the United States.
In 2005, the U.S. allowed 15,000 Lao Hmong to immigrate from Thailand, but officials have said no more will be accepted.
Surayud said that unless the Hmong were sent back, it would be a ``never-ending problem. ... The situation in Laos ended since 1975. It's now 2007. If we don't deal with this problem, we will have to be home to more illegal immigrants. It is a burden in every way for us.''
