The recent fatal shooting of a Cambodian dissident in Thailand, combined with possible deportations of Uighur refugees has once again shone a spotlight on Bangkok's failure to protect dissidents and political refugees.
Former Cambodian lawmaker Lim Kimya was gunned down on January 7 in Thailand's capital. He had only arrived in Bangkok earlier that day on a bus from Cambodia.
Separately, the Thai government on Thursday, sent at least 40 Uighurs who had been detained in Bangkok for over a decade back to China.
"Both Lim Kimya's killing and the current predicament of the Uighurs show that (...) Thailand is not a safe place for refugees," Patrick Phongsathorn, a senior advocacy specialist for Fortify Rights, told DW.
Deporting Uighurs against international law
The assassination of Lim Kimya and the alleged deportations are only the latest in the long line of violent or legally questionable incidents concerning migrants in Thailand.
In November 2024, Thai authorities forcibly returned six opposition activists to Cambodia to face treason charges, despite them having a UN-recognized refugee status.
In mid-2024, Bangkok also arrested Y Quynh Bdap, a Vietnamese ethnic minority rights activist, following an extradition request from Hanoi.
A year earlier, Bounsuan Kitiyano, an exiled Lao political activist who also had UN refugee status, was killed in Thailand's northeastern Ubon Ratchathani province.
Thai authorities have also deported Uighurs, a mostly Muslim ethnic group in China's northwestern province of Xinjiang that has faced persecution by Beijing. In 2015, Thailand repatriated 109 Uighur detainees to China — a decision that was widely condemned.
And the latest extradition of 40 Uighurs also prompted condemnation, with critics slamming it as illegal.
But the Chinese government said that the repatriation was carried out "in accordance with Chinese and Thai laws, international law and international practice."
"The Chinese citizens repatriated this time were incited by criminal organizations and illegally left the country before remaining in Thailand," a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Public Security told a press briefing.
No safety in Southeast Asia
Other countries in the region seem to follow the same trend. In an email to DW, Amnesty International said it has also "observed the alarming escalation of transnational repression" in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar.
"Activists, human rights defenders, and political dissidents who fled their home countries in hopes of a safe haven ended up facing abductions, enforced disappearance, killings, and forcible returns to places where they could face human rights violations," said Chanatip Tatiyakaroonwong, Amnesty International's Thailand and Laos researcher.
For example, Thai human rights activist Wanchalearm Satsaksit disappeared in Cambodia in 2020. A year earlier, three Thai activists, Chucheep Chiwasut, Siam Theerawut, and Kritsana Tupthai, went missing after reportedly being arrested in Vietnam. Their whereabouts remain unknown.
In late 2018, the bodies of two anti-royalist Thai activists, Chatcharn Buppawan and Kraidej Luelert, were found stuffed with concrete on the banks of the Mekong River.
Amnesty's Chanathip said: "the identities of perpetrators remain unknown" in most cases, "despite the strong suspicion of state involvement given that the victims were all critics and dissidents."
Police say Lim Kimya's killing not political
Following the shooting of Lim Kimya in Bangkok, Thai Police Commissioner Pol Gen Kitrat Phanphet said the crime was "not politically motivated but stems from personal conflicts." Kitrat did not say how the police reached that conclusion.
But Cambodian politician Sam Rainsy pointed the finger at the veteran ruler of Cambodia, Hun Sen, saying the ex-dictator was behind the killing.
"Several dozen members of the opposition have been coldly assassinated," Rainsy said in an online post, adding he also faced multiple attempts on his life.
On the day Lim Kimya was shot dead — which coincided with the anniversary of the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime — former prime minister Hun Sen, who in 2023 handed power to his son Hun Manet, called for a new law to label those attempting to topple his son's government as "terrorists."
Close ties between Bangkok and Phnom Penh alarm activists
Lim Kimya's case is "part of a long-standing and unchanging mistreatment" that exiles and asylum seekers suffer in Thailand, Tyrell Haberkorn, a professor of Southeast Asian studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told DW.
"What enables this to take place with impunity is an unwillingness to investigate or hold perpetrators to account," said Haberkorn.
The governments of Thailand and Cambodia enjoy especially close ties. A 2024 report by Human Rights Watch attributed "the intimidation and harassment, surveillance, and physical violence" that Cambodian dissidents in Thailand face to Hun Sen's ties with former Thai Prime Minister Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha.
In the aftermath of the Lim Kimya killing, Thai authorities need to determine "whether there was collusion between elements of the Thai and the Cambodian political establishments,” Phongsathorn told DW.
Will Thailand become safer by joining UNHRC?
Despite its apparent failures in protecting dissidents, Thailand won its bid for a seat on the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) last year. Its membership started on January 1 and is set to last three years.
"Thailand's human rights performance will be under increased scrutiny, and the Thai state and government will be held to a higher standard as a member of the UNHRC," said Phongsathorn.
However, it remains unclear how this would affect the alleged agreements with other governments "regarding transnational repression," Phongsathorn added.
While the UNHRC does not obligate its members to take any specific actions, the Thai government "should use its membership term as an opportunity to take leadership in enhancing the rights of refugees and asylum seekers, both in Thailand and across the region," said Chanatip.
