Thailand deports 5 Cambodian opposition party activists

Rights defender condemns deportations back to Cambodia as ‘transnational repression.’

By RFA Khmer
2024.11.26

 

Buddhist monks stand in front of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) headquarters in Phnom Penh, Nov. 17, 2017. (Samrang Pring/Reuters)

Thai authorities deported five Cambodian opposition activists back to their country, a Thai official said, drawing condemnation from fellow activists who said they risk persecution at the hands of a Cambodian government that does not brook dissent.

The five, along with two children, were sent over the border to the Cambodian town of Poipet through the main land crossing between the countries on Sunday, Cheat Khemara, a Cambodian opposition member who is taking refuge in Thailand, told Radio Free Asia.

“I am concerned that Hun Sen will not tolerate them and if they are imprisoned, they will receive the harshest treatment,” Cheat Khemara said.

Veteran authoritarian leader Hun Sen stepped down as prime minister last year to be replaced by his son, Hun Manet.

Hun Sen retains the posts of ruling party leader and president of the Senate, while the government under his son has shown no sign of taking a more moderate line with criticism.

The five – Pen Chan Sangkream, Hong An, Mean Chanthon, Yin Chanthou and Soeung Khunthea - were all members or supporters of the Cambodian National Rescue Party, or CNRP, fellow activists said.

The CNRP was founded by veteran opposition leader Sam Rainsy in 2012 and dissolved by a court in 2017 after being accused of plotting to topple the government, which the party denied.

Along with the five adults was a seven-year-old grandson of Hong An and Yin Chanthou’s daughter.

Fellow activists said the deportees had been recognised as refugees by the U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR. The agency’s regional spokesperson did not respond to an emailed request for comment.

A spokesperson for Cambodia’s national police, provincial police and the Phnom Penh Municipal Court could not be reached for comment.

A Thai immigration official confirmed that the seven had been detained in Pathum Thani province, in Bangkok’s northern suburbs on the weekend and sent back to Cambodia.

“Based on immigration law, we had to deport them on Sunday evening,” said the officer, who declined to be identified.

‘Harassment and persecution’

International human rights groups have condemned Thailand in recent years for assisting neighbors, including Vietnam and Cambodia, to undertake what the groups say is unlawful action against human rights defenders and dissidents, making Thailand increasingly unsafe for those fleeing persecution.

Human Rights Watch criticized what it called a “swap mart” of transnational repression in which foreign dissidents in Thailand are effectively traded for critics of the Thai government living abroad.

Thailand has rejected such criticism saying it only implements its immigration laws.

Prum Chantha, a representative of the Friday Wives, a rare voice of defiance in Cambodia named for its weekly protests against repression, said authorities had told her that the five were sent to a court in the capital, Phnom Penh, but she did not know if they would be charged.

Authorities had asked her to take care of Hong An’s grandson, she said.

Soeung Sen Karuna, director of the Australia-based Khmer Democracy Organization said the Cambodian and Thai governments were collaborating in transitional repression.

“It is very inhumane that Thailand turns to collaborate with the Cambodian government to deport Cambodian opposition activists back to their homeland where they face severe prosecutions,” Soeung Sen Karun said.

“Thailand fails to honor human rights law and refugees rights as a member of the UN. I condemn the Thai authorities. They should stop such harassment and persecutions and not be judged as joining hands with the Phnom Penh government.”

Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.

Pimuk Rakkanam for RFA contributed to this report.