US President Barack Obama should urge Asian leaders at the first ASEAN-US summit to unite in addressing the region’s most pressing human rights concerns.

As leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meet at the Thai beach resort of Hua Hin this week, recent events on other Asian coastlines presents a challenge to the grouping. The plight of the ethnic Rohingya Muslim minority from Burma was revealed when several boats containing hundreds of exhausted men arrived on Thai, Indian, and Indonesian shores in January.

Thai authorities should end intimidation and forced deportations of Lao Hmong refugees detained in a camp in Petchabun province, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch expressed concern for the well-being of some 1,300 Lao Hmong who escaped from the Huay Nam Khao camp and did not return following a mass protest two weeks ago.

The Thai government should stop forcibly returning Hmong asylum seekers to Laos without independent monitoring or refugee screening, Human Rights Watch said today.

The Thai government should not forcibly repatriate thousands of Lao Hmong refugees currently detained in Thailand to likely persecution in Laos, Human Rights Watch said today. The Thai-Lao border committee will meet from September 2-4 to decide the fate of Hmong refugees at a camp in Petchabun province.