This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BANGKOK 007920 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EAP/MLS, PRM, DRL, G/TIP 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/30/2015 
TAGS: KCRM PREF PREL PHUM TH LA KTIP LAOS
SUBJECT: STATUS OF MISSING HMONG CHILDREN REMAINS UNCLEAR 
 
REF: VIENTIANE 001301 
 
Classified By: POLITICAL COUNSELOR SUSAN M. SUTTON FOR REASON 1.4 (B, D 
) 
 
¶1.  (C) Summary. The current location and status of the 29 
Lao Hmong children and teens reported arrested last month 
remains unclear.  A National Human Rights Commission official 
believes that the children remain in immigration detention in 
Nong Khai, Thailand, while second hand reports from the Lao 
Hmong refugee community suggest that they were deported to 
Laos earlier this month.  Reactions from Thai security 
officials range from silence to denial.  Post will continue 
to energetically push for a clear understanding of, and 
hopefully positive resolution to, this case.  End Summary. 
 
WEEKS OF UNCERTAINTY 
-------------------- 
 
¶2. (C) Following reports in early December that Thai 
officials had arrested and possibly deported 29 Hmong 
children and teens from the Petchaboon settlement, Post has 
been working closely with NGO contacts and Embassy Vientiane 
to determine the fate of this group.  Reftel details the 
background on the case and Embassy Vientiane officers' 
efforts to locate the group in Laos. 
 
STILL IN THAILAND... 
-------------------- 
 
¶3. (C) According to Khunying Ambhorn Meesook, a close Embassy 
contact and member of the National Human Rights Commission of 
Thailand who has been following this case, the children 
remain in immigration detention in Nong Khai, Thailand, 
awaiting eventual deportation to Laos.  Ambhorn confirmed the 
basic story we have heard so far: the children were arrested 
in late November after illegally leaving the Petchaboon 
settlement area to visit a local church. (Note.  Most of the 
Lao-Hmong in Petchaboon are illegal immigrants and 
technically subject to deportation at any time, but Thai 
authorities have allowed them to remain in the area under the 
specific condition that they do not travel out of the camp. 
End Note.)  Following their arrest, the children were 
transferred to the Nong Khai immigration office pending 
deportation.  Their parents were reportedly told by local 
police to travel to Nong Khai to be reunited with their 
offspring, wherein each family would be sent back to Laos. 
The parents refused.  According to Ambhorn, the children are 
in relatively good condition and being well fed. 
 
...OR DEPORTED TO LAOS ALREADY 
------------------------------ 
 
¶4. (C) UNHCR contacts in the Hmong community--some related to 
the missing children--have a different story.  Following 
their arrest, the children contacted family members by cell 
phone to report that they were in Nong Khai and that they 
would be deported on December 5.  On December 5, the children 
called again and said they were being put into boats to be 
sent to Laos.  An hour after the second call, a member of the 
group contacted the families again saying that they were "on 
the other side" but couldn't talk because of the police 
around them.  Since this call, there have been anecdotal 
reports of individual children from this group possibly 
contacting family members to say they were in Laos, prompting 
some of the families to reach out to friends and relatives in 
Laos to help track down the children, to no avail. 
 
DEPORTATION? OR EXTORTION GONE BAD? 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶5. (C) Further confusing the story (or shedding real light on 
it) are reports from an independent NGO in Petchaboon and 
second-hand stories from the Petchaboon Hmong that current or 
former Thai police officials have offered to "return" the 
children for money.  These offers have come and gone--at one 
point they were allegedly retracted because the story was too 
"high-profile."  While such a kidnap for ransom effort may be 
new to the community in Petchaboon, the Hmong there have been 
targeted by a variety of groups and individuals in a series 
of other schemes.  One local American NGO worker estimates 
that the Hmong have been extorted out of nearly one million 
baht (about $25,000) in the last year.  Indeed, a second Thai 
NGO contact believes that the children are being held in Nong 
Khai, but not in the immigration detention facility. 
 
¶6. (C) Thai security and local government officials have done 
little to alleviate this confusion.  Repeated calls to our 
contacts from the Thai National Security Council (NSC) have 
yielded no substantive response.  The Petchaboon governor 
confirmed earlier this month that the group had been arrested 
and sent to Nong Khai for deportation but was too "busy" to 
comment on the case this week.  Intrepid efforts by Embassy 
Vientiane officers to contact Thai immigration officials in 
Nong Khai (which is directly across the river from Vientiane) 
produced an even more confused reaction: the Thai immigration 
chief first suggested that he had heard of the case, only to 
deny all knowledge in a second conversation on the same day. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶7. (C) We suspect that increased NGO and diplomatic attention 
is causing Thai officials to clam up in an attempt to let the 
furor die down while they figure out a graceful way to 
resolve this problem.  It is possible that some members of 
the group were sent back to Laos--possibly without GoL 
concurrence--while others are still in detention in Nong 
Khai.  We hope to have better success in tracking down the 
truth after the holidays. 
 
ARVIZU