Senior Lao officials on Friday welcomed the return to Laos of 119
illegal migrants from 30 families after they illegally entered
Thailand in hopes of travelling to a third country. See more photos
on this site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hmongreturnee119

The migrants returned voluntarily to Laos after spending up to two
years in a detention camp in Houaynamkhao village in Khaokhor
district, Phetsabun province, Thailand , said Deputy Director of
Boundaries and Maps and Secretary of the Committee on Security
Cooperation on the Lao-Thai border, Lieutenant Colonel Siphanh
Phouthavong.

He said the returnees would be sent to a temporary centre in Pakxan
district, Borikhamxay province, for about one week before they
returned to their original homes or went to stay with relatives.

“Officials will determine their personal background, such as their
place of birth, before sending them to their home towns,” Mr Siphanh
said.

Returnees who no longer have a home to go to or those who formerly
practised shifting cultivation will be relocated by the Lao
government.

“Relocated illegal migrants will be provided with basic living needs
by the government until they can fend for themselves,” he said.

Mr Siphanh encouraged the returnees not to believe rumours that
previous returnees had experienced difficulties on their return home.

The increase in the recent number of illegal migrants returning to
Laos has been stimulated by the efforts of both Lao and Thai officials
to prove that previous returnees are enjoying a better standard of
living and safety since arriving in Laos .

Deputy Director of the Department of Border Affairs of the Supreme
Command Headquarters of Thailand, Major General Souphot Thammalongvan,
said more Lao migrants living in Thailand had volunteered to return to
Laos after receiving information about the good hospitality provided
by the Lao government to previous returnees.

“The illegal migrants who returned to Laos on Friday volunteered to
come back and walked towards officials saying they want to return to
their country,” Mr Souphot said.

Homeless people are expected to live with other families who returned
previously and are now living in Phalak village, Kasy district, in
Vientiane province. These families were resettled by the government in
2006.

Lao officials will educate the returnees to make sure they will not be
tricked into leaving the country again, to prevent them from becoming
victims of human trafficking.

The Lao and Thai governments have agreed to return all the remaining
illegal Lao migrants in Thailand , numbering around 7,000, to Laos by
the end of this year.

The return of the migrants to Laos is in line with the minutes of the
37 th meeting of the Sub-General Border Committees of Laos and
Thailand , held last year in Vangvieng district, Vientiane province.

By Vientiane Times
(Latest Update September 1 , 2008)