HANOI, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) -- Laos' efforts in foreign affairs boosted the country's image in the international arena in 2008, the Lao newspaper Vientiane Times reported Monday.

    The remark was made by Lao Foreign Affairs Minister Thongloun Sisoulith at the review on the country's diplomacy achievements this year.

    The 2008 diplomacy has seen Lao enhancement its relationship with Latin America, Europe and Middle Eastern countries, including Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Venezuela, Egypt, Turkey, Switzerland and Kuwait.

    Another significant achievement was Laos' success in hosting Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meetings and summits. Laos hosted the third Greater Mekong Sub-Region Summit in March and the recent Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam Summit, said Thongloun.

    Thongloun said initiatives proposed by Laos to regional and international bodies were highly valued by international community and Laos was considered to be a suitable venue for important meetings in the future.

    While highlighting the achievements, Thongloun also talked about challenges in the foreign affairs arena. These include ineffective coordination between the ministry and other sectors, and slow progress implementing agreements between Laos and foreign countries.

    Thongloun said Lao embassies in foreign countries should do more to promote tourism and encourage foreign companies to invest in Laos. He also said there was a shortage of qualified diplomats and many foreign affairs officials had limited skills.

Authorities in Vientiane acknowledge that Lao illegal labor in Thailand is becoming an issue of increasing concern. The number of these workers in Thailand, according to Thai authorities, is approximately 300,000, as opposed to Lao authorities’ estimate of only 200,000. Nonetheless, this situation has resulted in an increase in the number of Lao youths, especially young women, being forced into prostitution and at risk of falling into the trap of transnational human trafficking.

As admitted by Major Khamkeo Manola, Deputy Director of  the Transnational Human Trafficking Department of the Ministry of Interior, the number of victimized Lao youths from 2001 to 2008, totaled more than 2,000; the majority of them were women. And just last year alone, Thai authorities sent over 28,000 illegal workers back to Laos via the Vangtau-Chongmek border checkpoint in Champassack province.

The fact that the Lao government is unable to create enough jobs for its workforce will certainly contribute to the increase of the number of Lao youths, between the age of 14 and 49 years old, sneaking into Thailand to seek jobs and work illegally there. Lao officials have planned to create and find at least 100,000 jobs for its workforce during the fiscal year 2008-09; of which 25,000 were to be found in neighboring countries, especially Thailand, while the rest would be created domestically. However, during 2007-2008, the government was able to create barely 40,000 jobs domestically and 8,000 abroad. Of the 8,000 workers who were sent to work abroad. 1,000 of them have been returned by Thai employers who said the workers lacked the skills they required.

The concern for finding employment for Lao workers in Thailand is further augmented by the fact that the Thai government has decided to limit the number of legal foreign workers from Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia, to no more than 800 thousands beginning next year, to reserve jobs for Thai workers due to the impact of the global economic crisis. Thus job opportunities for Lao workers in Thailand will inevitably become more scarce. 

"We have had the Hmong problem for a long time at Ban Winai camp, Wat Tham Krabok and now Phetchabun, and it is because of Vang Pao," Lao Ambassador to Thailand Hiem Phommachanh said.

Vang Pao is the Hmong leader who led the community in helping the US Central Intelligence Agency fight Communists in the 1960s and 1970s. He has been living in the US since the end of the Vietnam war.

Thailand has sheltered Hmong ethnic refugees since the fall of Vientiane to the Communist Pathet Lao movement in 1975.

They used to live in the Ban Winai refugee camp in Northeastern Nakhon Phanom province and at Wat Tham Krabok in Saraburi, but these facilities were shut down after the refugees were resettled in the US.  About 6,500 Hmong are now living in Phetchabun's Ban Huay Nam Khao.

They say they are associated with the CIA's fighters and that they recently fled suppression in Laos recently.

Hiem said, "They came to Phetchabun only in the hope of resettlement to the US."

He made the comments as part of a special lecture to the National Economic and Social Advisory Council on relations between Thailand and Laos yesterday.

It is rare for a Lao official to speak about the ethnic Hmong refugees in Phetchabun.

The Hmong in Laos, most of whom live in remote areas, did not know about resettlement opportunities in the US until agitators told them about the possibility, the ambassador said.

Officially, Vientiane says the Hmong in Phetchabun are Thailand's domestic problem and has refused to take them back saying Bangkok has failed to prove they are really Lao citizens.

To solve the Hmong problem at its root, the ambassador said, the human traffickers who urge and facilitate their entry into Thailand need to be dealt with.

"We have to find out who is behind the migration of the Hmong: Thais, Americans or people in Laos," Hiem said, stressing that all three countries are obligated to deal firmly with any of their citizens involved in human trafficking.

Supalak Ganjanakhundee

The Nation
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2006/07/14/regional/regional_30008666.php