Rights groups document cross-border repression pattern in Southeast Asia
Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security said this week it had arrested Tran Hiep, a 50-year-old Australian citizen, along with Nguyen Duc Thuan and Thai Cong Truong Son, accusing all three of attempting to “cross illegally” from Cambodia into Vietnam. Vietnamese officials also charged the men with terrorism and forging identity documents. Viet Tan, a pro-democracy group composed of members of the Vietnamese diaspora, said Hiep and Thuan were its members; Thuan holds a Norwegian passport. Vietnam’s government has designated Viet Tan as a “terrorist group,” a charge the organization denies.
Hiep moved to Australia more than three decades ago and lived in Melbourne, where he founded an advocacy organization focused on combating human trafficking of Vietnamese girls and women, according to his wife, Dang. Dang said her husband was also passionate about free speech and helped those in the Vietnamese diaspora improve their digital security against the authoritarian state. The freelance IT professional had traveled to Cambodia to meet with other activists of Vietnamese origin.
The couple were texting about commonplace topics — issues with their refrigerator, preparing for Hiep’s niece’s birthday party — when he stopped replying on September 18, Dang said. Hiep had been due to fly to Bangkok to meet his wife but never boarded his flight.
“My husband entered Cambodia legally, and now he’s gone missing and it appears [he’s] in a Vietnamese prison somewhere,” Dang said. “How can the Vietnamese government abduct someone on another country’s land?”
Vietnamese authorities have not specified where the three men are being held, and their families say they have been provided no information. The activists have not been granted consular access.
Dang has called on the Australian government to fight for her husband’s freedom. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Vietnamese President To Lam met in Canberra last month, pledging to deepen their partnership on issues including defense and trade. In comments to the media this week, Albanese said his government was providing consular assistance and engaging directly with the family. “I’m not naive to say that I don’t know [what the Vietnamese government can do],” Dang said. “But I hope as an Australian, his fate could be different.”
In a separate case, 26-year-old Laotian activist Khieo Lapchanh disappeared on his way to his apartment in a Thai province just outside Bangkok last month, according to a human rights group tracking his case. Lapchanh did not show up for his registration interview with the United Nations Refugee Agency in Bangkok the next day and has not been heard from since. The Manushya Foundation, a human rights organization that has previously assisted other Laotian asylum seekers, reported Lapchanh’s disappearance to Thai police.
The cases underscore a precarious landscape for activists across Asia, who human rights groups say are increasingly vulnerable to transnational repression — pursued by authoritarian governments even across international borders. The groups have warned of a “swap market” of repression in Southeast Asia, where governments in the region work together to intimidate, arrest, extradite and punish critics and refugees.
Phil Robertson, director of Bangkok-based Asia Human Rights & Labour Advocates, has tracked and advocated for victims of transnational repression for almost two decades. “Everyone has to be looking over their shoulder all the time,” Robertson said. “You’d expect there would be some larger outcry because what we’re talking about is violation of refugee rights [and] of state sovereignty.” But countries in the region have been “muted,” he added. “It seems to almost be like: if you do something in my country… later I’ll expect a favor from you,” he said, describing a trade where dissidents are mutually suppressed.
Viet Tan published a report in September documenting 20 cases in which Vietnamese authorities pursued critics and activists outside Vietnam’s borders. The cases include blogger Duong Van Thai, who in April 2023 disappeared off the streets of Bangkok before appearing in detention in Vietnam. Thai, a UN-registered refugee seeking asylum, has since been sentenced to 12 years in prison.
In recent years, Cambodian opposition leaders say they have been surveilled and jailed in Thailand, once a refuge for asylum seekers. Laotian refugees in the country — verified and registered by the United Nations — have gone missing or been found dead. Thailand’s Ministry of Information and a spokesman for the Cambodian government did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees, in a statement to NPR, said it does not comment on individual cases. The agency added that “states have the primary responsibility to provide protection and safety to persons on their territory, including refugees and asylum seekers and people whose lives could be at risk if they were returned.”