Senators issue statement on Hmong repatriation

UNDATED (WSAU) Senators from Wisconsin and Minnesota are calling on the governments of Thailand and Laos to protest Hmong refugees who’ve been forced out of a refugee camp. Thai military officials closed the camp on Sunday. The people who lived there were seen being ordered onto busses bound for Laos.

Senators Russ Fiengold, Herb Kohl, Al Franken, and Amy Kloboocar have signed a statement calling for international monitors to oversee the repatriation, and strongly condemning the decision to close the camp.

Many Hmong family members in the U.S. say their loved ones will face religious and ethnic persecution because the Hmong helped U.S. forces in a secret war against the Communists in Laos in 1974 and 75.

Source