(Bangkok) – The Thai government should immediately reject Vietnam’s request to extradite an Indigenous Montagnard human rights activist and permit him to resettle abroad, Human Rights Watch said today.
Y Quynh Bdap, 32, an activist from the Ede ethnic group of Vietnam’s Central Highlands, fled the country in 2018 after authorities placed him under intense surveillance after an overseas trip. Following an extradition request by Vietnamese authorities, Thai police arrested him in June 2024. He is at risk of torture and other serious abuses in Vietnam and is registered as a refugee by the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR.
“The activist Y Quynh Bdap fled Vietnam for Thailand to escape persecution,” said John Sifton, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “The Thai government shouldn’t be assisting Vietnam in its repression of activists and should allow them to resettle abroad.”
In September, the Bangkok Criminal Court ruled that the Thai government could send Y Quynh Bdap back to Vietnam, and he faces deportation as soon as October 30. In requesting Y Quynh Bdap’s extradition, Vietnamese authorities alleged that he was involved in riots in Dak Lak province in June 2023. After a short mass trial in January 2024, a Vietnamese court convicted and sentenced Bdap in absentia to 10 years in prison.
Earlier this year, the Canadian government was reportedly considering offering Y Quynh Bdap resettlement to Canada. Canada and other governments should seek his release with the intention of facilitating his departure to a safe third country, Human Rights Watch said.
Thailand will be violating domestic law and its international refugee law obligations if it sends Y Quynh Bdap back to Vietnam. Thailand’s Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance Act prohibits extradition when there is a substantial risk of torture or ill-treatment upon return.
In addition, Thailand is obligated to respect the international law principle of nonrefoulement, which prohibits countries from returning anyone to a place where they would face a real risk of persecution, torture, or other serious ill-treatment, or a threat to their life. This principle is codified in the UN Convention Against Torture, to which Thailand is a party, and customary international law.
Y Quynh Bdap suffered persecution in Vietnam for years, Human Rights Watch said. Vietnamese state media have accused him of being born into a family with “a tradition” of opposing the Vietnamese Communist Party and accused his grandfather of being “a henchman” for the US during the Vietnam War. His father was imprisoned for three years for “inciting” a public protest.
In 2012, police detained Y Quynh Bdap for five months without access to legal counsel on the charge of “undermining national unity” under article 87 of the 1999 penal code. Local authorities in the Central Highlands routinely use this charge to punish Montagnards for association with independent religious groups that the state has labeled “evil.” The authorities eventually released him. In December 2013, local authorities subjected Y Quynh Bdap to a public denouncement during which he was forced to promise that he would stop all religious activism.
In 2016, Y Quynh Bdap traveled to Thailand for a conference on religious freedom. When he returned to Vietnam, the police detained him for seven days and interrogated him about his trip. He was subsequently placed under intrusive surveillance, leading him to flee to Bangkok in 2018 to seek asylum. In Thailand, he founded Montagnards Stand for Justice, which sought to protect and promote the rights to freedom of religion and other rights of Montagnards in the Central Highlands. In March 2024, the Vietnamese government labeled this group and the Montagnard Support Group as “terrorist” organizations linked to the 2023 riots.
Human Rights Watch documented in a May 2023 report that Thai authorities in recent years have been assisting Vietnam and other countries to undertake unlawful actions against human rights defenders and dissidents, making Thailand increasingly unsafe for those fleeing persecution.
Duong Van Thai, 42, another activist who campaigned for years for democracy and human rights in Vietnam, fled to Thailand in 2019 amid an intensifying crackdown. He was awaiting resettlement to a third country when he was abducted in April 2023 and forcibly taken to Vietnam, where authorities charged him with “conducting propaganda against the state.” He is scheduled to go on trial in Hanoi on October 30 and if convicted faces up to 12 years in prison.
On March 14, Vietnamese police, accompanied by Thai police, visited two Montagnard refugee communities in Thailand, intimidated and pressured refugees to return to Vietnam, and questioned some of them about Y Quynh Bdap’s whereabouts. Thai police located and arrested him three months later.
“Y Quynh Bdap has spent years advocating for the rights of Indigenous Montagnards in Vietnam,” Sifton said. “Vietnam should not be prosecuting him for exercising his rights to free speech, and Thailand should not be participating in Vietnam’s attacks on his basic freedoms.”
