Thai security authorities has decided to repatriate to Laos more than 6,000 ethnic Hmong seeking refugee in the country's northern Phetchabun province, local press reported Thursday.

After a meeting of security agencies last week, they resolved that all the Hmong people who were present at Phetchabun's Khao Kho district must be force back over the borders to Laos, said Pall Pinmanee, deputy director of the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC).

"If Laos refuses to take the Hmong back, the authorities will take all means necessary to push them back across the border. The government has no policy to open a refugee camp to house the illegal immigrants or shoulder this burden," he was quoted by Bangkok Post as saying.

It is reported that the Hmong fled from Laos to Khao Kho district in September 2004. The number eventually reached 6,558 as many others followed.

Thai authorities in Khao Kho has asked landowners not shelter the Hmong or they would be charged with housing illegal immigrants.

Third Army Commander Lt-Gen Picharnmet Muangmanee said the Hmong in Phetchabun posed a security problem to the country and must be repatriated.

On Tuesday, a two-month-old Hmong girl died of diarrhoea and fever after the group were forced out of the temporary shelter in Phetchabun pending repatriation to Laos.

Gen Pallop said they were waiting for the proper time to truck the Hmong to the border regardless whether the Lao government accept them or not.

For fear the Thai authorities might push the Hmong back, Laos has reportedly deployed troops along the border.

(Xinhua News Agency July 7, 2005)