Thailand extradites a Vietnamese activist despite concerns from rights groups

BANGKOK (AP) — Thai authorities extradited a Vietnamese activist who had been detained in Bangkok since last year despite concerns from rights groups that he could be in danger if sent back to Vietnam.

Y Quynh Bdap, who helped found a group that advocated for the rights of Vietnamese ethnic minorities, was handed over to Vietnamese authorities on Friday and his whereabouts are now unknown, his lawyer Nadthasiri Bergman told The Associated Press on Monday.

“He disappeared from the custody of Thai authorities on Friday, and as of now, we still don’t know his whereabouts,” Nadthasiri said. “This is clearly a violation of Thailand’s anti-torture and enforced disappearance laws.”

The Royal Thai Police did not immediately respond to inquiries regarding Bdap’s extradition.

The Department of Corrections said Friday that it had transferred Bdap from a Bangkok prison to the police after the Court of Appeal upheld a lower court’s order to extradite him to Vietnam in 2024.

Bdap is a 33-year-old co-founder of the Montagnards Stand for Justice group. Vietnam has long faced criticism from rights groups for its treatment of the Montagnard minority, a term broadly used to refer to several predominantly Christian ethnic groups living in the central highlands of Vietnam and neighboring Cambodia.

The activist was accused of organizing anti-government riots in Vietnam’s central highland province of Dak Lak in 2023, in which nine people were killed, including four police officers and two government officials.

Bdap denied the charges, saying in a video released shortly before he was detained that he had “absolutely nothing to do with that violent incident.”

“I am a human rights activist fighting for religious freedom and advocating for people’s rights,” he said. “My activities are peaceful, consisting only of collecting and writing reports on human rights violations in Vietnam.”

Bdap went into hiding in Thailand after he was alerted that Vietnamese authorities were making inquires about him, but was detained in Bangkok in June 2024, according to his lawyer. He was convicted in absentia in Vietnam in January on terrorism charges and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

In total, around 100 people have been tried for alleged involvement in the riots, and 53 have been convicted on terrorism charges.

Days after the verdicts, Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Pham Thu Hang rejected criticism that Vietnam had used the trial as an opportunity to crack down on ethnic minorities.

Human Rights Watch has criticized Thailand for deporting dissidents to uncertain fates in Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and China, a practice it describes as a form of transnational repression in return for which other countries send back dissidents wanted by Thailand.

“It is appalling that Thailand has chosen to assist Vietnam in repressing human rights activists. Transnational repression has become a stain on Thailand’s human rights record, especially as a current member of the United Nations Human Rights Council,” said Sunai Phasuk, Asia advisor for Human Rights Watch.