Following a raid on 10 August, 26 Karen villagers from Ban Pa Deng village in Phetchaburi were deported and handed over to the Karen National Union (KNU).
The group included pregnant women and children. According to Transborder News, the 26 villagers were previously detained at the Suan Phlu Immigration Detention Centre in Bangkok. On 19 August,they were taken to the Phu Nam Ron immigration checkpoint in Kanchanaburi and transferred across the Thai-Myanmar border. They were then received by the KNU’s Brigade 4. The two pregnant women were admitted to a KNU-run hospital, and it was reported that the rest would later be transferred to a community along the border.
A community representative told Transborder News that most villagers were relieved to learn that the 26 villagers were received by the KNU, since they speak the same language. However, they remain concerned about a group of 10 villagers previously deported who were handed over to the Myanmar military and the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA) and have lost contact with the rest of the community.
On 10 August, Thai district and forestry officials, accompanied by military personnel, raided Ban Pa Deng, an Indigenous Karen community in Kaeng Krachan National Park, targeting villagers without proof of Thai citizenship. The authorities initially arrested 28 people, including 8 children and 2 pregnant women.
According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), two were released after officials verified their residence registration record. The remaining 26 were taken to the Suan Phlu Immigration Detention Center.
Civil society groups raised concerns that the villagers would be deported to Myanmar, where they could be at risk of grave danger due to violence from the Myanmar military or forcibly conscripted.
HRW and the ASEAN Parliamentarian for Human Rights (APHR) both warned that deporting them would go against Thailand’s obligations under the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, to which Thailand is a state party, as well as the international human rights principle prohibiting the return of individuals to a place where they would face persecution or a threat to life.
According to a report published by the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), KNU Brigade 4 commander Saw Pho Lay said that the 26 villagers reside in the Myeik region, which is in the brigade’s territory, and can now return to their home areas. He also said he is relieved they are not handed to the junta and that he believes the outcome was likely influenced by appeals made by Thai human rights groups.
A park, a World Heritage listing and a long dispute
It remains unclear whether the villagers’ individual circumstances, family ties, citizenship claims, or protection needs were examined before they were sent over the border. And while their transfer to the KNU ended the immediate concern that they would be handed to the Myanmar military, it leaves open questions about the detention and removal of people whose families say they have lived in Kaeng Krachan National Park for generations.
Indigenous Karen communities have lived in the forests of Phetchaburi and Prachuap Khiri Khan for generations, long before Kaeng Krachan National Park was established. Following the establishment of the national park, communities face continued pressure from the Thai authorities to leave the park. Many faced violent eviction and relocation to sites unsuitable to their traditional farming method.
The tension peaked as Thailand sought World Heritage status for the Kaeng Krachan Forest Complex. In April 2020, UN special procedures sent Thailand a communication on alleged violations of Karen Indigenous peoples’ rights in the complex, including the murder of human rights defenders, lack of meaningful consultation with local communities facing land rights issues, and exclusion of Indigenous communities from forest management. In July 2021, UN experts called on the UNESCO World Heritage Committee to defer the listing, citing human rights violations against Indigenous communities in the park, including forced eviction and the burning of a village, as well as the abduction and murder of community leader Porlajee Rakchongcharoen.
On 26 July 2021, the Kaeng Krachan Forest Complex was inscribed a World Heritage site, despite the continued concerns being raised by UN experts, human rights groups, and Indigenous communities.
At first glance, the August arrests concern immigration documentation. But for communities that have lived in an area for generations, lacking modern citizenship papers does not mean lacking a relationship with the land. HRW noted that Karen people frequently travel between communities across the Thai-Myanmar border, and while th hundreds of thousands of Karen in Thailand hold coloured identification cards recognising them as a hilltribe group, more recent arrivals have no legal status. Community leaders also told HRW that Thai authorities have recently classified undocumented Karen in Kaeng Krachan, including local villagers, as “illegal immigrants”, leaving them open to arrest and deportation.
This creates a potentially dangerous cycle: conservation restrictions limit access to ancestral land, limited access undermines livelihoods and documentation, and the lack of documentation then exposes residents to immigration enforcement. Statelessness or uncertain citizenship becomes intertwined with dispossession.