Over 60 Montagnard Christians arrested in Thailand

Of Anugrah KumarChristian post collaborator Friday, February 28, 2025

The Thai authorities in Bangkok arrested over 60 Montagnard Christian migrants who faced persecutions in Vietnam and attracted criticism from the US government to deport 40 ethnic minorities in China.

The group consists of 68 Montagnard Christians, including men, women, children and at least one pregnant woman, Radio Free Asia Reports, citing the organization of aid for refugees Boat Boat Sos. All were caught on Sunday during a memorial assembly near the Thai capital who involved prayer and worship.

Most remain in detention because they would have remained in the country without legal documentation and could face deportation, according to reports.

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The police transferred the prisoners to the immigration authorities, and those who could not pay fines imposed by the court ($ 120) or bail were in prison. Officials said that the legal entry requirements were not met, which led to charges of illegal entry and residence.

Some of the prisoners are registered with the High Commissioner of the United Nations for refugees (UNHCR), and at least 43 have refugee cards issued in Thailand. Police said that people without funds to cover fines have faced an eight-day imprisonment, followed by the transfer to an immigration detention unit, Suan plu.

The center is known for overcrowded cells, where men, women and children can remain months or years.

Although the authorities did not report any immediate plan to send them back to Vietnam, the concerns persist about the possibility of deportation to a later stage.

Part of the group participates in the Christian services in Thailand, while looking for asylum.

During the attack, Thai officials also detained the Montagnards members for justice. The founder of the group, identified in records as an activist Montagnard, was arrested by the Thai authorities in the middle of 2024 following a request in Vietnam, who accused of involving in a disturbance last year.

UNHCR has given the refugee status before its detention, and currently awaits the result of extradition procedures in a Thai court of appeal. The individual’s husband organized the funeral service for her mother, who died in Vietnam, according to the media reports.

Montagnards who face extraction charges in Thailand are subject to Thai court decisions, which involve criminal or immigration procedures. Lawyers for arrested activists indicated the Law on the prevention and suppression of torture and forced disappearance in Thailand, in 2022, as a factor that the courts should take into account when establishing if it is sure to return to Vietnam.

The Vietnamese authorities labeled MSFJ last year a terrorist organization, holding links with violent incidents in Highlands Central. MSFJ denied any involvement.

There are more than 4,000 Vietnamese refugees in Thailand, most of them fled from Vietnam because of persecution and harassment for their Christian or political beliefs, conformable International Christian concern of persecution in the US. They are waiting for a few years for a result from UNHCR or other agencies.

Vietnamese dissidents and religious minorities have tried to find refuge in Thailand for decades. However, Thailand did not ratify the 1951 Convention on the Statute of Refugees. For this reason, people requesting asylum in the country do not have formal protection in accordance with international refugee laws.

People with refugee books who are accused of violating entry and residence rules may also encounter prolonged prison.

On Thursday, about 40 men in the ethnic minority group persecuted from UIghur from China were deported by the Thai authorities after more than a decade in the country.

Citing local sources and member of the Thai parliament, the group of guards Christian solidarity worldwide Notes that witnesses saw two sets of vehicles with covered windows carrying prisoners from the detention center in Bangkok.

The Chinese state media CCTV confirmed that “40 Chinese illegal immigrants” were repatriated. A photo presented by CCTV showed Uyghur’s ethnicity.

Men were among a group of approximately 300 ugs detained in March 2014, after crossing the border to Thailand, to run away from fleeing to persecutions.

The reports of American officials and human rights groups have found that China has closed more than 1 million people, including Uyghurs and other mainly Muslim ethnic groups in Xinjiang concentration camps. Prisoners are taught to be secular citizens who will never oppose the Communist Governing Party, supporters say.

Although most of the 300 arrested in Thailand were sent to Turkey, CSW reports that 109 were deported to China. A source told the guard that five ugs are kept in the central prison Klong Prem, while three are housed at the detention center in Bangkok.

The US Bangkok Embassy emphasized in a statement that similar deportations “have caused attacks of violent reprisals in the past.” Mervyn Thomas, the founding president of the CSW, said that deported UIUGers will be arbitrarily detained and will probably experience torture or other raw, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. “

American Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, condemned deportations from “the most powerful terms”, saying that China has no rights on the proper process, and Uiugers “faced persecutions, forced labor and torture.”

“As a long -term ally of Thailand, we are alarmed by this action, which risks its international obligations under the UN Convention against torture and the International Convention on the protection of all persons against forced disappearance, Rubio said in a statement. “This act contravenes the long -term protection tradition of the Thai people for the most vulnerable and is not in accordance with Thailand’s commitment to protect human rights. We ask all governments in the countries where Uyghurii seeks protection to not force ethnic Uyghurs to China.”

In the last days of the first Trump administration, then secretary of the state of Mike Pompeo designated the mass hospitalization of China, forced labor and forced sterilization of Muslim minorities in the western Xinjiang province and “crimes against humanity”.