Thailand's Hmong fear deportation
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Rights groups and diplomats have expressed deep concern that Thailand is preparing to deport 4,000 ethnic Hmong.
The group, held in the north-east, are likely to be sent back to communist Laos, where they fear persecution.
Thai authorities have reportedly deployed extra troops to Phetchabun province where the Hmong are held in camps.
This has fuelled fears that they will fulfil a pact with Laos to expel the group by the end of the year.
Thailand has also failed to renew an agreement with the only aid group providing assistance at the camps.
The Catholic Office for Emergency Relief and Refugees says their agreement to extend help expires on December 31.
"This is brazen contempt for the most basic principle of refugee law," said Sunai Phasuk, a analyst at the Human Rights Watch organisation.
The ethnic minority Hmong are seeking political asylum, claiming they face persecution from the communist regime in Laos because they fought alongside US forces during the Vietnam War.
Thailand says they are economic migrants.
This group has been offered resettlement in Western nations, but Thailand has refused to allow that.
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