Dopo il 2003, circa 8.000 Hmong - tra i quali molti che, secondo l'Onu, sono davvero rifugiati politici - hanno attraversato la frontiera laotiana con la speranza di ottenere l'asilo in un terzo Paese, ma secondo la Thailandia, nessun governo occidentale si è mostrato interessato.

(Epa/Narong Sangnak)

Hmong refugees inside a military truck leave from Ban Huay Nam Khao camp to Laos, in Phetchabun province, northern Thailand, 28 December 2009. Thailand on 28 December 2009 began deporting 4,000 ethnic Hmong refugees to Laos despite international appeals to the government to reconsider the involuntary repatriation to an uncertain future. The first batch of 448 Hmong were taken from Huay Nam Khao camp in Phetchabun province to buses that will carry them to Nong Khai province where they will cross the Mekong River on the Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge into neighbouring Laos, said Thai Army Colonel Thana Jaruwat, spokesman for the Internal Security Operations Command.