Hmong refugees just want clean water

Hmong refugees just want clean water

Today marks 34 months that a group of 158 Hmong refugees have been detained in an overcrowded immigration jail in Nong Khai, Thailand. All of them are UNHCR-recognized refugees with legitimate fears of persecution if returned to Laos, the country they fled from.

Eleven children have been born in captivity and one mother turned into a vegetative state after suffering a brain aneurysm brought on by stress seeing her newborn forced to live under such awful conditions.

These refugees, mainly women and children, live inside two tiny nine by nine meter cells 22 hours a day. The unsanitary yellowish water that they drink and bathe in is the major cause of illness. Having to rely on this poor water source for almost three years now has kept the refugees chronically ill.

Stress is also a very major factor compromising the refugees’ health. Many have chronic migraine headaches due to the uncertainty of whether they will be sent back to Laos where they face persecution

The foreign diplomatic community seems to be outraged by these awful living conditions yet it has watched for 3 years now! When is it enough? What is the breaking point? When the refugees take their own lives?

For starters maybe you can get some sanitary drinking water for these poor refugees.

Joe Davy
Hmong Advocate
Chicago

ENDS

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