Bangkok is home to a church where Vietnamese refugees find a temporary haven from lives fraught with fear of arrest or deportation. This is because Thailand, having not signed up for the UN Refugee Convention, does not have a system in place to differentiate between refugees and other migrants, resulting in thousands of individuals living under the radar.
Soon, a revamped system will be implemented, designed to distinguish between individuals who would face danger if returned to their homelands and others who are in Thailand illegally. However, this new system is being greeted with unease by refugees and rights activists alike, who fear it could be misused or even lead to expedited deportations.
Sung Seo Hoa, a Vietnamese pastor and member of Vietnam’s Hmong minority, expressed these fears. Having fled from pressure from the communist government in his…
