A group of 85 persons have been in detention in Bangkok since December 14, 2010 despite the fact that they are already registered as asylum seekers with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Bangkok. Of the 85 persons, 17 of them have reportedly had their applications accepted and have been granted refugee status. The group includes 38 women and girls, among whom there is at least one pregnant woman. It also includes at least 38 children, including 26 aged under 10 years. There is also a number of babies and elderly one of whom is 60 and is suffering high blood pressure and another person with a heart condition.

Déjà vu is a French term meaning “already seen”.  Refoulement is also French, with a literal meaning of “force back”.  Upon receiving a report on Christmas day that Thai authorities had just forced back 166 refugees to Myanmar, I knew that I had seen this before—on Christmas 2009 in fact.  

To the Thai people, via Cross-border News Agency,

Since 24/01/10 that the Cross-border News Agency started to circulate information relating to the coerced repatriation of Karen refugees in Nong Bua and Usu Tha temporary shelter on the Thai-Burma border to the Thai public, our stories have been discussed more in Thai media.  From news and reports being monitored, we found that in fact, the Thai PM and authorities including Thai military have the very same stand with us; that is 'refugees will be allowed in Thailand when there are still threats in their homeland.  When the situation is better, they must go back.'

(February 5th, 2010) KWO is again very concerned about the forced repatriation done by the Thai authority in Nong Bua refugee camp. 3 families with a total of 13 people, 9 of them are women and the rest are children, including 9 month old breastfeeding baby were forced to go back to Burma today.