Category: Laos

November 22, 2024

6 tourists dead after drinking tainted alcohol in Laos

Read more on this topic in Lao
Updated on Nov. 22, 2024, 03:38 p.m.
A young Australian woman has died after drinking alcohol laced with methanol in Laos, her father said on Friday, the sixth victim of what should have been a fun night out in a tourist town on the Southeast Asian backpacker trail.
Shaun Bowles, said in a statement his “beautiful girl Holly is now at peace” after dying in a hospital in Bangkok, where she was taken last week after falling ill in neighboring Laos.
Her friend, Bianca Jones, died on Thursday in a hospital in the northeastern Thai town of Udon Thani, where she had been sent for treatment. They were both 19.
A British woman, two young Danish women and an American man have also died, and several more people are reported to be sick, after going out for drinks last week in the riverside town of Vang Vieng, which has for years been a laid-back stop for young Western travelers.
Media identified the British woman as Simone White, 28, a lawyer.
“We are supporting the family of a British woman who has died in Laos, and we are in contact with the local authorities,” Britain’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office said on Thursday.
It is believed White had been sent for treatment in the Lao capital, Vientiane, after falling ill last week. A member of staff at the Kasemrad International Hospital there told Radio Free Asia on Wednesday a British national was being treated in its intensive care unit. The hospital declined to comment on Friday.
The exterior of Bangkok Hospital, in Bangkok, Thailand, Nov. 21, 2024.
An official from the Lao Ministry of Public Security told RFA on Friday that at least seven foreign tourists have been sent from Vang Vieng to Kasemrad for treatment.
The Lao government has not confirmed the cause of the deaths but on Friday it cited Australian media as saying the victims had consumed drinks laced with methanol.
“The case is under extensive investigation now,” the ministry official said. “I think it will take sometimes to conclude the case, but I am not sure about the timeline.”
Thai authorities said an autopsy on Jones showed she died from brain swelling caused by methanol. The British, Australian and New Zealand embassies have issued updated travel advisories on the danger of methanol in Laos.
Methanol is a clear, tasteless liquid that can be used to boost the alcohol content of drinks, often with fatal consequences.
Some 1,200 people have fallen ill from drinking methanol-laced drinks in the past year, according to Doctors Without Borders, which said 394 people had died worldwide, many of them in Asia.
‘Severe condition’
Earlier on Friday, the Ministry of Public Security identified the two Danish women who died as Anne-Sofie Coyman, 20, and Freja Sorensen, 21, and the American man as James Hutson, 57. All three had been staying at the Nana Backpacker Hostel in Vang Vieng, it said.
The ministry said no autopsies had been carried out so it couldn’t confirm the cause of death.
“On Nov. 12, Coyman and Sorensen went out drinking at bars in Vang Vieng before coming back at midnight,” the ministry said in a statement.
“At 6 p.m. on Nov. 13, a staff member at Nana Backpacker found them lying unconscious in their rooms so they carried them to Vang Vieng Hospital. They were in a coma and relied on a respirator due to their severe condition. They were transferred to the No. 103 Military Hospital at 8 p.m. but they died at 3:30 in the morning.
“The doctors concluded death was due to sudden heart failure.”
The ministry said hostel staff found Hutson on his bed just after 9 p.m. on Nov. 13 and took him to Vang Vieng Hospital but he was dead on arrival.
The U.S. State Department earlier confirmed the death of the U.S. citizen, while the Danish government confirmed two of its nationals had died in Laos.
‘Don’t accept free drinks’
Details of how the tourists came to drink tainted alcohol in Vang Vieng are sketchy and it is not clear if they were all drinking at the same bar. Residents told RFA no Lao people had fallen ill over the past week but cases of tainted alcohol were common in Vang Vieng.
A town police officer who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the case, said anyone found selling tainted drinks would face serious consequences.
“Methanol is basically prohibited to mix with alcohol for sales as it is listed as a life-harming chemical,” he told Radio Free Asia. “It is only allowed to be used for industrial purposes.”
A Lao tourism official told RFA that officers had checked all bars and entertainment venues in Vang Vieng but added he could not give details of their findings.
Bar staff and venue managers in the town said they only offered reputable brands of drinks, though one of them warned that customers should always be careful.
“The only thing that can prevent this kind of incident is to not accept any free drink offered by someone you don’t know in a bar,” said the man, who declined to be identified.
An official from the Vang Vieng tourism office told RFA that it is widely understood that the deaths could have “negative impacts” on Laos’ tourism industry.
Police in Vang Vieng have detained but not charged several people in connection with their investigation, the AP reported. Staff at Nana Backpacker told the agency the hostel’s owner and manager had been taken away for questioning.
Duong Duc Toan, the manager of Nana Backpacker Hostel sits in the hostel’s bar in Vang Vieng, Laos, Nov. 19, 2024.
The British Foreign Office in its updated advisory said methanol was been used in the manufacture of counterfeit replicas of well-known alcohol brands or illegal local spirits, like vodka.
“You should take care if offered, particularly for free, or when buying spirit-based drinks. If labels, smell or taste seem wrong then do not drink,” it said
Translated by Phouvong. Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.
This story has been updated to add comments from two Lao officials.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Lao.

This post was originally published on Radio Free.
November 21, 2024

Australian, American take death toll from tainted alcohol in Laos to 4

Australian teenager Bianca Jones became the fourth person to die after drinking alcohol mixed with highly poisonous methanol at a tourist town in Laos, Australia’s prime minister said on Thursday.
The 19-year-old was being treated in the intensive care unit of a hospital in the northeastern Thai town of Udon Thani after falling ill following a drinking session on Nov. 12 in Van Vieng, a favorite backpacker haunt in Laos, 200 kilometers (125 miles) to the north.
Thai authorities said Jones died by “brain swelling due to high levels of methanol found in her system,” the Associated Press news agency reported.
“This is every parent’s very worst fear and a nightmare that no one should have to endure,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said after informing parliament of Jones’ death.
He said his thoughts were also with Jones’ friend, 19-year-old Holly Bowles, who is critically ill at a hospital in Bangkok.
Jones’ parents released a statement confirming her death and asking for privacy.
“She was surrounded by love, and we are comforted by the knowledge that her incredible spirit touched so many lives during her time with us,” they said.
An American man, who remained in Van Vieng after falling ill last week, also died, according to the U.S. State Department.
A spokesperson declined to give details, saying the department was “closely monitoring” the situation but it was up to local authorities to determine the cause of death, Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald reported.
Two Danish women, both around 20 years old, were the first fatalities of what should have been a fun night out in the tourist town.
About a dozen people are ill in hospitals in Laos and Thailand, health sources have said.
Lao authorities have not confirmed the cause of death but there is little doubt the poisoning was caused by methanol, a clear liquid that is often illegally added to alcohol as a cheaper alternative to ethanol. Even a small amount of methanol can be fatal.
Australia and Britain both updated their travel advisories to warn of the danger of methanol poisoning in Laos
“Methanol has been used in the manufacture of counterfeit replicas of well-known alcohol brands or illegal local spirits, like vodka,” the British government said.
“You should take care if offered, particularly for free, or when buying spirit-based drinks. If labels, smell or taste seem wrong then do not drink.”
Suspected methanol poisoning has led to nearly 400 deaths in the past 12 months, according to Doctors Without Borders. Asia has the highest level of poisoning, with Indonesia, India, Cambodia, Vietnam and the Philippines particularly hard hit, the group said.
Edited by Mike Firn.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Staff.

This post was originally published on Radio Free.
November 20, 2024

Briton, 2 Australians in intensive care after suspected alcohol poisoning in Laos

BANGKOK – One British and two Australians tourists are seriously ill after drinking alcohol suspected of being tainted with poisonous methanol in a tourist town in Laos, after two young Danish women died, hospital sources told Radio Free Asia on Wednesday.
The British tourist is in intensive care in a hospital in the Lao capital, Vientiane, while the two Australians are in hospital in neighboring Thailand, the sources said. As many as nine other tourists were ill, media reported.
All of them were believed to have been in the Lao town of Vang Vieng, a favorite destination for backpackers in Southeast Asia.
The Lao government said it had not identified what killed the two Danish women and made the others sick.
“We acknowledged the incident but we do not have the autopsy and investigation results yet,” said an official at the Ministry of Public Security who declined to be identified, given the sensitivity of the matter.
RFA previously reported that tourists got sick after a late-night drinking session on Nov. 12, according to sources in Laos who declined to be identified.
A member of staff at the Kasemrad International Hospital Vientiane, said a tourist was admitted to the hospital last week.
“The British national is in ICU,” the female staff member told RFA, referring to the hospital’s intensive care unit. She declined to give further details about the condition or gender of the patient.
Two Australians, Holly Bowles and her friend, Bianca Jones, both 19, were in serious condition in Thailand – one in hospital in Bangkok and the other in the town of Udon Thani, near the border with Laos, Australian media reported.
A member of staff at the Bangkok hospital did not deny it was treating one of the tourists but declined to identify her or give details of her condition.
Australia’s 9News quoted Bowles’ father, Shaun, as saying his daughter was still fighting for her life.
“Our daughter remains in the intensive care unit, in a critical condition. She’s on life support,” he said.
Jones’ family said in a statement carried by Australian networks on Wednesday that she remained in intensive care in Udon Thani and they had received no update on her condition.
“This is every parent’s nightmare and we want to ensure no other family is forced to endure the anguish we are going through,” the family said.
The two best friends had been on a “dream getaway,” the family said in an earlier statement.
Nana Backpacker Hostel in Vang Vieng, Laos, Nov. 19, 2024.
‘Profit over lives’
An official at the No. 103 Military Hospital in Vientiane told RFA on Wednesday the two unidentified Danish women had died of severe poisoning.
“The [first] woman passed away on the first day she was transferred from Vang Vieng, having breathing difficulties,” the official said. “The second woman was able to travel by herself in a car but finally succumbed.”
She said many other patients were referred to hospital elsewhere.
Most of the sick tourists – who included Danish and Swedish nationals – had been staying at the Nana Backpacker Hostel in the town, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, reported.
RFA spoke to Duong Van Huan, an owner of the hostel, who said that the poisoning did not occur at his bar.
“I don’t know much of what happened,” he said “They went to the bar and came back … I only sent them to the hospital … I don’t know which bar they went to – Vang Vieng has lots of them.”
A foreign businessman in Vang Vieng told RFA he thought there needed to be an international inquiry.
“From my opinion, this needs a lot of investigation by local and foreign officials,” he said. “The ones who are accountable will get what they deserve and send a very clear message to all bars and hostels that they should never make a small extra profit over lives.”
Police told RFA Lao they are investigating whether the source of the illness was methanol, a clear liquid that is often illegally added to alcohol as a cheaper alternative to ethanol. Even a small amount of methanol can be fatal.
A tourist took to a Laos Backpacker group on Facebook to post a warning.
“Urgent – please avoid all local spirits,” the tourist said. “Our group stayed in Vang Vieng and we drank free shots offered by one of the bars. Just avoid them as so not worth it. 6 of us who drank from the same place are in hospital currently with methanol poisoning.”
An official at the Australian Embassy in Bangkok declined to comment.
Edited by Mike Firn

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Lao.

This post was originally published on Radio Free.
November 20, 2024

2 dead, 10 ill from apparent alcohol poisoning in Lao tourist town Vang Vieng

Two Danish citizens have died and as many as 10 other foreign nationals are severely ill after ingesting what is believed to be alcohol tainted with methanol in the Lao tourist town of Vang Vieng, according to sources and media reports.
The victims had been out drinking late into the night on Nov. 12 and began to feel ill early the next morning, at which point they were taken to a hospital in Vang Vieng for treatment, according to a report by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, or ABC.
Most of the tourists – who included Danish, Australian and Swedish nationals – had been staying at the Nana Backpacker Hostel in the town in Vientiane province, the report said.
Police told RFA Lao that they are investigating whether the source of the illness was methanol, a clear liquid that is often illegally added to alcohol as a cheaper alternative to ethanol. Even a small amount of methanol can be fatal if ingested.
Duong Duc Toan, the manager of Nana Backpacker Hostel sits in the hostel’s bar in Vang Vieng, Laos, Nov. 19, 2024.
They confirmed that one Danish tourist had died as a result of the poisoning and that “several other foreign tourists” were being treated at the No. 103 Military Hospital in in the capital Vientiane.
Other sources said two Danish women in their 20s had died from the poisoning.
ABC cited a statement from the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirming that two Danish citizens “have passed away in Laos,” but said it provided no further details, citing reasons of confidentiality in personal matters.
ABC reported that two Australian women, aged 19, had been hospitalized in Vang Vieng, but were later transferred to a hospital in Vientiane, before being sent to another medical facility in Thailand. They were both listed in critical condition.
The report cited a spokesman for Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade as saying that the government was providing consular assistance to the two Australians and their families in Thailand.
Investigation underway
RFA spoke with Duong Van Huan, an owner of the Nana Backpacker Hostel, who said that the poisoning did not occur at his bar.
“They went out to the bars – lots of people,” he said, referring further questions to police.
“I don’t know much of what happened,” he added. “They went to the bar and came back … I only sent them to the hospital … I don’t know which bar they went to – Vang Vieng has lots of them.”
A paramedic in Vang Vieng told RFA Tuesday that early on Nov. 13, three tourists were taken to the No. 103 Military hospital in Vientiane, but one of them was already dead.
“It seems like she drank something mixed with poison in Vang Vieng,” said the paramedic, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the situation with the media. “The police are investigating this incident.”
A woman carries a baby as she walks by the Nana Backpacker Hostel in Vang Vieng, Laos, Nov. 19, 2024.
An official from the hospital in Vang Vieng confirmed that “many foreign tourists are being treated … due to an illness caused by poison.”
“But then most of them were transferred to other hospitals,” said the official, who also declined to be named. “Some of them were in a coma when they arrived here.”
A police officer in Vientiane told RFA on Tuesday that the case is “under investigation,” but he was unable to confirm how many tourists had been poisoned.
After the incident, a tourist took to a Laos Backpacker group on Facebook to post a warning.
“Urgent – please avoid all local spirits,” the post said. “Our group stayed in Vang Vieng and we drank free shots offered by one of the bars. Just avoid them as so not worth it. 6 of us who drank from the same place are in hospital currently with methanol poisoning.”
An official at the Australian Embassy in Bangkok declined to comment when asked for further details about the incident.
Translated by Phouvong. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Lao.

This post was originally published on Radio Free.
November 18, 2024

Laos cracks down on imports of unlabeled goods

The Lao government is cracking down on a host of consumer goods, from bottled drinking water to fish sauce, that don’t have proper labels showing they are registered with the government.
But residents say the warning isn’t likely to have any impact as corruption is rife amongst officials who are tasked with weeding the goods out at the border.
On Oct. 9, the Lao Ministry of Industry and Commerce issued a notice prohibiting the import and sale of food products that are not registered with the Ministry of Health’s Food and Drug Administration, beginning Jan. 1, 2025.
The notice requires importers to display FDA registration numbers and other relevant information in Lao on the labels of their products.
The reason appears to be to protect consumers against dangerous or questionable products.
“This [ban] can’t be enforced because it’s difficult in Laos,” said one resident who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke to RFA on condition of anonymity due to security concerns. “Everything can be imported if you deal with the right inspection official. If something is restricted, you just pay a little money – that’s how it is with the officials.”
Border officials, like other civil servants in Laos, earn a paltry salary, and many turn to graft to supplement their income and support their families.
Another resident noted that goods are regularly brought into the country from China, Vietnam and Thailand by smugglers who pay bribes to border checkpoint officials to look the other way.
“It can’t be done – they can’t restrict it at the border,” said the resident, who also declined to be named. “A lot of smuggled goods come in. These days it’s mostly Vietnamese, Chinese and Thai products coming into Laos.”
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But the sources RFA spoke with said they agreed with the premise of the ban, as a wide variety of food supplement products are being sold throughout the country with no clear label of origin.
“Some could be fake products that cause side effects when consumed, so the government should strictly inspect importing companies and thoroughly investigate the source [of the products],” a third resident said. “If they can enforce it, that would be good. Things like cosmetics can be very dangerous, and food supplements too.”
‘Many products slip through’
An official with knowledge of the situation told RFA that the notice was intended to inform all import-export companies, wholesalers, retailers and domestic producers that they need to accurately label their goods, as part of a bid to build consumer confidence in Laos.
“Many food supplement products use exaggerated advertising claims and may contain chemical additives that could cause cancer or other side effects, which Lao authorities haven’t fully investigated,” said the official.
He acknowledged that “many products slip through” the border and authorities have little data on what impacts they have had on the people who consume them.
“If we find such products now, we will seize and detain them, and destroy them according to the law,” he said.
The official provided no details on the volume of goods believed to be smuggled into the country or why smuggling is rampant at the border.
According to the notice announcing the ban, labels detailing a product’s registration number and other relevant information in Lao must be affixed at the factory of the product’s origin, and will be required beginning Aug. 1, 2025.
During the transition period, importers, exporters, wholesalers, retailers and domestic producers can affix the information to their products with printed stickers.
Translated by RFA Lao. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Lao.

This post was originally published on Radio Free.
October 17, 2024

Illegal guns are pervasive in Laos, despite measures to control them

Illegal guns are pervasive in Laos as government measures to control them have been largely ineffective, a government official with knowledge of the situation said.

Under current law, Laotians must register weapons they own with authorities, but that is largely unheeded — leading to crimes committed with guns.

In September, for example, a group of unidentified armed men stormed a prison in Vientiane, fired at guards and escaped with five prisoners.

“Many wealthy Laotians buy weapons from the other side of the Mekong River,” said a Public Security Ministry official, who like other sources in this report requested anonymity so he could speak freely without retribution, referring to Thailand and Myanmar.

“They smuggle them into Laos,” he said. “There are too many guns in the country right now. It’s difficult to control the spread of weapons because they bought the guns, but they wouldn’t register them with us.”

It is difficult to determine just how many people have guns, he added.

The Ministry of Public Security issued an order on Aug. 16 notifying citizens that it would cancel authorizations to use firearms issued by all security departments that were not in compliance with a decree on registration and control of guns dated June 23, 2022.

An illegal rifle seized by police in Laos is seen in this undated photo. (Houaphanh province police)

‘Guns are everywhere’

The ministry also said it would set up a police force to implement a prime ministerial decree on confiscating and controlling weapons and explosives, and that this force should “invite” gun owners to hand over their firearms.

Those who fail to comply within 15 working days will be charged with illegal possession of firearms.

Still, a resident of the capital, Vientiane, said gun control was weak, noting that there have been more shootings there in the past several years.

“Guns are everywhere. Our community is not safe,” he said. “Our security department is not strict and not effective.”

Many local officials and residents have some kind of weapon despite the bans, said an official at the Houaphanh province police department in northeastern Laos.

The department has confiscated and destroyed many of the weapons, but he said many people own hunting rifles or air guns that they make from metal pipes or other materials.

On Oct. 11, authorities in the southern province of Savannakhet reported that police were able to register 3,140 guns from 2019 to 2023, including 1,870 short guns, such as pistols, and 1,270 rifles. They also confiscated 265 illegal guns and 1,113 bullets during this period.

Guns are rife in the north, in the Chinese-controlled Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone in Bokeo province, a resident told RFA Lao. In June 2023, authorities arrested a Lao national for shooting two Chinese men in the zone.

“They sell them to each other like they are selling cake,” he said. “Safety protection and controls in the zone are based on who has money and authority in the zone.”

Translated by Max Avary for RFA Lao. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Lao.

This post was originally published on Radio Free.
September 27, 2024

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September 18, 2024

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September 18, 2024

Laos’ largest province is short 500 teachers

Laos’ most-populous province is short more than 500 teachers for the new school year starting this month, even as the central government slashes jobs to reduce the country’s enormous debt.

The two problems can be traced to the economic crisis gripping Laos amid soaring inflation and living costs, a declining currency, poor job prospects and swelling debt from dams and other infrastructure projects.

More than 300 teachers in Savannakhet province recently retired, Gov. Bounhom Oubonpaseuth said at a Sept. 9 meeting with other high-ranking provincial officials. That number includes volunteer teachers who help staff many classrooms.

In Laos’ centrally planned economy, school staff are government employees, and many young people work as volunteer teachers in classrooms until there is an opening for salaried staff.

But rampant inflation has made it less likely that volunteers will be offered a full-time state teaching job, and more volunteer educators have been walking away from the profession.

A primary school in a rural area of Savannakhet province, Laos, in March 2023. (RFA)

Interior Minister Vilayvong Boutdakham told lawmakers in the capital Vientiane last week that the government must cut more than 3,000 positions for nurses, teachers and other state workers by the end of 2025.

The lack of teachers has been a growing issue in Savannakhet – with more than 1 million inhabitants – and elsewhere in the country since at least 2017, when the national government began reducing state employee quotas because of its shrinking budget.

One teacher for several classrooms

Earlier this year, the province began paying a living allowance of 1.5 million kip (US$68) a month to volunteer teachers. But that hasn’t been enough to keep enough volunteers in the schools.

In the province’s Xayphouthong district, so many have quit that most kindergartens have no teachers and some schools have no teachers at all, a district education official said.

In Sepon district, officials need to bring in 123 volunteer and salaried teachers, an education official there told Radio Free Asia. There are 109 schools in the district’s rural areas, where it’s especially hard to hire and keep teachers, he said.

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“Only nine schools have enough teachers – the rest don’t,” he said. “One teacher has to teach many classes or grades at the same time.”

Other provinces are facing the same issues. Northern Oudomxay Province has a shortage of 273 teachers. Central Bolikhamxay province has openings for 413 teachers, according to Phophet Kounnavong, deputy director of the province’s Department of Education and Sports.

Lao primary school students gather in a classroom in March 2023. (RFA)

One teacher in Bolikhamxay who recently resigned said the salary of 1 million kip (US$45) a month wasn’t enough to meet living expenses.

“I quit to set up a small business,” she said. “Many volunteer teachers have also quit. They couldn’t wait. Those who continue will have to teach many classes at the same time – especially in rural areas.”

Nationwide, last year’s teacher shortage was 2,778, according to official statistics published by the Lao Ministry of Education and Sports.

Translated by Max Avary. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Lao.

This post was originally published on Radio Free.
September 16, 2024

Flooding from typhoon swamps northern Laos, Myanmar’s Inle Lake area

Updated Sept. 16, 2024, 08:52 p.m. ET.

Images from northern Laos and central Myanmar show the extent of flooding from torrential rains brought by Typhoon Yagi.

Asia’s biggest storm of the year has left scores of people dead or missing in several countries in Southeast Asia since roaring across northern Vietnam, northern Laos and Thailand last week, causing landslides and flooding, and destroying homes, bridges and roads.

People gather on a porch as buildings sit in floodwaters in Luang Prabang province, Laos, Sept. 12, 2024. (FB/Pouth Freedomman via Reuters)

Since Sept. 10, high water levels in Laos’ Luang Namtha province have forced residents in affected villages up to the second floors of their flooded homes as they wait for help.

Others have sought temporary shelter inside a provincial administration hall, a badminton court hall and Buddhist temples.

Vegetation and buildings are inundated by floodwaters in Luang Prabang province, Laos, Sept. 12, 2024. (FB/Pouth Freedomman via Reuters)

The waterlogged areas include 35 villages, according to a Sept. 11 provincial administration report submitted to Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone’s office.

Authorities are busy rescuing people from the roofs of their homes, taking them to temporary shelter, and providing food and drinking water from donations by businesses and the wealthy, said a local official who declined to be identified so he could speak freely.

Vegetation and buildings are inundated by floodwaters in Luang Prabang province, Laos, Sept. 12, 2024. (FB/Pouth Freedomman via Reuters)

Heavy rains from the storm caused spillover from the Namtha 3 Dam that flowed down the Namtha River, a tributary of the Mekong and the largest river in the province, and contributed to the flooding of province’s Luang Namtha district.

Lake level rises 6 meters

In Myanmar, flooding from heavy rains has displaced more than 20,000 people from over 170 villages since Sept. 11 in the vicinity of Inle Lake, and residents urgently need aid, locals and volunteer aid workers said.

The flooding caused power outages and forced schools to close in communities near the freshwater lake in southern Shan state.

“We have never experienced such a severe flood before,” said a resident of Ma Gyi Seik village.

Homes are inundated by floodwaters at Inle Lake in Myanmar’s southern Shan state following Typhoon Yagi, Sept. 14, 2024. (STR/AFP)

The water level of the lake has risen more than six meters (20 feet) above normal because of heavy rainfall and water washing down from the mountains, inundating roughly 2,000 nearby homes.

A resident of affected He Yar village said only a few of some 800 single-story houses were not inundated with water, and that villagers must rely on food delivered by boat.

Rescue workers have evacuated the elderly to Buddhist monasteries, though they need water and medicine, while other families are staying with friends and relatives, said a volunteer rescue worker.

Homes are inundated by floodwaters at Inle Lake in Myanmar’s southern Shan state following Typhoon Yagi, Sept. 14, 2024. (STR/AFP)

As of Sept. 16, Myanmar state media said 226 people had died and 77 were still missing, according to the AFP news agency.

The death toll is double the previous figure of 113 reported on Sunday, with nearly 260,000 hectares (640,000 acres) of crops destroyed by floods.

Translated by Phouvong for RFA Lao and by Aung Naing for RFA Burmese. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

Updates Myanmar death toll to 226.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Lao and RFA Burmese.

This post was originally published on Radio Free.
September 13, 2024

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August 27, 2024

China arrests 15 North Korean escapees near Laos

Under cover of darkness, the 15 North Koreans – 13 women and two children – approached the river, where they expected to catch a speedboat out of China to Laos, bringing them one step closer to freedom.

They had traveled more than 2,500 kilometers (1,500 miles) across China to get to that point, hoping eventually to fly from Southeast Asia to Seoul.

Suddenly, Chinese police appeared and arrested all of them.

Instead, they will likely be repatriated – a fate that awaits nearly all North Korean escapees in Chinese police custody – and will likely be punished for fleeing.

The incident occurred on the night of Aug. 21, according to a South Korean human rights group, Korea Unification Solidarity, that had been helping the escapees.

The Chinese guide leading the group had sent a video clip to update their status to some of their family members who had already made the journey to South Korea. They were arrested moments later.

According to Korea Unification Solidarity, the escapees were on their way to South Korea – in a roundabout route.

After first fleeing North Korea to China, they were divided into two groups to avoid detection. Each group took a different route across China to the southern city of Kunming, and once reunited they planned to cross the border to a Southeast Asian country.

“The two groups arrived safely in Kunming and merged, but when they sent a video of their arrival at the riverside, the police raid started,” Jang Se-yul, a representative of Korea Unification Solidarity, told RFA Korean. “When I asked another guide, he said that they were all caught at the riverside.”

An escapee living in Seoul identified by the pseudonym Lee for safety reasons told Jang that his younger sister was among the group of 15 arrested escapees.

“Ten days ago, my younger sister and her group of 15 people left Yanji, Jilin Province, to go to Kunming and they were arrested by the Chinese police.” Lee said, according to Jang. “Their whereabouts became unknown after the video clip was sent by the Chinese guide.”

The three-second-long video clip provided to RFA by Lee via Jang shows several women, presumed to be among the 15 escapees, moving toward a river in pitch darkness to board a boat.

RFA has not been able to independently confirm which river is shown in the video or any of Jang’s statements about the incident.

According to Jang, the group consists of 13 North Korean women and two children who had lived temporarily in the northeastern Chinese provinces of Heilongjiang and Jilin.

Illegal migrants?

Although many in the international community are critical of China for forcibly repatriating North Korean escapees, Beijing maintains that they are not refugees, but illegal economic migrants, and that it must repatriate them because it is bound by two diplomatic agreements with Pyongyang.

The arrests come about a month after South Korea celebrated its first-ever North Korean Defectors’ Day, a new holiday that will henceforth fall on July 14 and celebrate the stories and struggles of North Koreans who have resettled in South Korea.

During the holiday events, South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol pledged to make “every diplomatic effort to prevent our compatriots who escaped North Korea and are living overseas from being forcibly repatriated.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, repatriations temporarily halted as the border between China and North Korea were closed down, but now that the border is open again, repatriations have resumed.

When RFA contacted South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment on the arrests, the ministry’s spokesperson Lee Jae-woong said that there was nothing that could be confirmed.

But he said that South Korea maintains that North Koreans residing overseas should not be forcibly repatriated under any circumstances.

South Korea’s Ministry of Unification told RFA that it reiterated that position and that it is currently verifying the facts.

Translated by Jay Park. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Jung Young for RFA Korean.

This post was originally published on Radio Free.
August 13, 2024

Laos orders Golden Triangle scammers out of zone by end of month

Authorities in northern Laos have given illegal call centers operating in the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone until the end of the month to clear out or face police action, according to officials and state media.

The murky Chinese-run special economic zone, or SEZ, along the Mekong River in Bokeo province is a gambling and tourism hub catering to Chinese visitors as well as a haven for online fraud, human trafficking, prostitution and illegal drug activities.

Scamming operations run by Chinese nationals who try to trick people into fake investments are rife in the zone and typically employ Laotians and other Asians trafficked to the area to work in the call centers. Many of the workers are mistreated and prevented from leaving the premises.

Lao-China Friendship Street in the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone in Bokeo Province, Laos, July 25, 2019. (Slleong via Wikipedia)

While authorities have arrested and deported alleged operators, the scam centers persist, drawing condemnation from the international community.

Following an Aug. 9 meeting between the governor of Bokeo province, high-ranking officials from the Lao Ministry of Public Security, and Zhao Wei, the chairman of the Golden Triangle SEZ, Lao authorities ordered all scam centers to be “completely shut down by Aug. 25,” according to state media reports and an official from the public security ministry.

The official who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns, told RFA Lao on Monday that the centers were given the opportunity to “remove all of their belongings by the deadline.”

“After that, we’ll set up a special force to enforce the order,” he said.

In the first half of 2024, as many as 400 call centers were operating in the Golden Triangle SEZ, up from 305 a year earlier, the official said. The centers have mostly targeted Chinese, prompting authorities in China to team up with their counterparts in Laos to tackle the problem.

Arch at the northern entrance of the Lao-China Friendship Street in the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone in Bokeo Province, Laos, July 25, 2019. (Slleong via Wikipedia)

As of Monday, Lao and Chinese authorities have carried out nine raids, arresting and deporting 1,389 scammers, he said, including 1,211 Chinese nationals, 145 Vietnamese, 16 Malaysians, 13 Ethiopians and four Burmese.

Amid the scrutiny, “some of them [the call centers] shifted into online gambling centers,” the official said. “Those that were arrested and deported were not big fish; they were small fish that were hired by Chinese to work as scammers.”

View of the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone in Bokeo Province, Laos, from Ban Sop Ruak in Thailand, July 25, 2019. (Slleong via Wikipedia)

Order welcomed

Residents of Bokeo welcomed the Lao government’s ultimatum.

“Getting rid of the crooks is a good move; my hat goes off to those authorities who follow the government’s policy,” said one man who lives near the SEZ. “A lot of people lost money by transferring it via their mobile phones to scammers.”

The owner of a guesthouse in SEZ said that getting rid of the scammers has been long overdue.

But he acknowledged that when the centers are shut down, “the SEZ will be empty – the hotels, guesthouses and restaurants will have no customers.”

Entrance into the Sam Liam Kham Checkpoint building in the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone in Bokeo Province, Laos, July 25, 2019. (Slleong via Wikipedia)

The order to evacuate came a week after Lao authorities raided several call centers in the Golden Triangle SEZ, detaining and deporting 154 Vietnamese and 29 Chinese for their alleged involvement in the scams.

In January, Laos repatriated 268 Chinese citizens suspected of scamming while living or working at the SEZ.

In November 2023, Lao authorities arrested more than 430 Chinese nationals who appeared to be involved in fraudulent call center operations in the SEZ, and handed them over to their Chinese counterparts for deportation.

A raid of what appears to be a call center is shown in a still image captured from video broadcast by Lao Public Security Television, Aug. 9, 2024. (laopstv via Facebook)

And that September, the Lao Ministry of Public Security deported 164 Chinese arrested in Vientiane and other Lao provinces, including Bokeo. Nearly 50 of them were arrested in the Golden Triangle SEZ and believed to be involved in running call centers.

Translated by RFA Lao. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Lao.

This post was originally published on Radio Free.
August 11, 2024

Olympics fans in Laos watch events through social media, Thai broadcasts

Sports fans in Laos have been watching the Paris Olympic games through online video platforms or through television broadcasts from neighboring Thailand.

Four athletes representing Laos competed in Paris, but there was little expectation they would bring home a medal. So viewers in Laos have also taken an interest in Thai athletes and other Southeast Asian competitors.

“I know well that Lao athletes have very little chance to win a medal,” a Vientiane resident told Radio Free Asia. “But I’m still closely following the Olympic games.”

She cheered on Panipak Wongpattanakit from Thailand, who won a gold medal in the taekwondo women’s flyweight division.

“I remember that she also won a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics too,” she said, referring to the games held in 2021. “I would say ‘congratulations’ to her.”

Steven Insixiengmay of Laos competes in the Men’s 100m Breaststroke Heats on July 27, 2024 in Nanterre, France. (Al Bello/Getty Images)

Laos’ television channels didn’t have enough advertising sponsors to show a live broadcast of the Paris games, an official from Laos’ Olympic committee said.

Instead, committee officials who are in France have been posting results from Lao athletes on social media platforms and have also done a few Facebook Live broadcasts to talk about the events, he said.

Fans in Laos have also just been enjoying the track and field, soccer and gymnastic events no matter who is competing, another Lao citizen told RFA.

“I watch almost everything,” he said.

Laos hasn’t won a medal since it first sent athletes to the Olympics in 1980, when the games were held in Moscow.

Praewa Misato Philaphandeth of Laos performs a rhythmic gymnastics routine, Aug. 8, 2024 . (Mike Blake/Reuters)

Four athletes represented Laos in Paris: Silina Pha Aphay, a Lao-born 100-meter sprinter; Praewa Misato Philaphandeth, a rhythmic gymnast who is of Lao, Thai, and Japanese descent; and Ariana Southa Dirkzwager and Steven Insixiengmay, both of whom are Lao-American swimmers.

Pha Aphay was briefly in the spotlight during a preliminary heat of the women’s 100-meter race. She was seen helping another sprinter, Lucia Moris of South Sudan, who fell to the ground during the race after an apparent injury.

After crossing the finish line in sixth place, Pha Aphay ran back to Moris as she lay on the track in pain. She stayed with her as medics strapped her onto a stretcher.

“Once I saw her on the ground in pain, it was in my mind that I must finish my race first,” she told RFA. “Then I asked permission from the referee if I could help her. The referee said yes, then I rushed to help her.”

Translated by Phouvong. Edited by Matt Reed.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Lao.

This post was originally published on Radio Free.
August 1, 2024

Laos grapples with high dengue infection rates amid rainy season

More than 8,400 people have been infected with dengue during the first seven months of the year, eight of whom have died of the mosquito-borne illness, according to figures issued by Lao health authorities in late July.

Though this year’s infection rate is high, it is a dramatic decrease from the 15,851 reported infections during the same seven-month period in 2023, according to the Centre of Information and Education for Health under Laos’ Ministry of Health. No reasons were given for this year’s lower figure.

The actual number of infections could be higher because not all Laotians seek help from medical centers or hospitals that would record and report their illnesses.

The country’s capital, Vientiane, has seen the most reported infections this year with 2,138 cases and three deaths, compared to 1,461 cases and one death during the first seven months of 2023.

Sekong province in southern Laos has the second-highest infection rate with 2,045 cases and three deaths, compared to 96 cases and no deaths during the same period in 2023.

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The number of dengue infections, caused by the bite of infected female Aedes species mosquitoes, is usually higher in central and southern provinces of Laos because these areas are warmer and have higher humidity levels than other parts of the country, said an official who works in the infectious disease control office under the Health Ministry.

A persistent threat

Despite the decrease in this year’s infection rate, dengue continues to pose a threat to residents of the tropical, landlocked country. Monsoons during the wet season from May to November bring significant rainfall and high humidity that are ideal breeding grounds for mosquitoes.

Exacerbating the problem are growing populations in cities with poor sanitation systems and ineffective preventive measures, said the infectious disease control official.

“It is because it is quite crowded in some cities now as many people move to live in the city,” he said.

A lack of sanitation means mosquitoes spawn in stagnant water that collects in discarded bottles and other containers as well as in canals without proper water flows, he said.

Aedes aegypti mosquito larvae, July 22, 2024. (Josue Decavele/Reuters)

Dengue infections plague Sekong city where many Laotians have moved to seek jobs in sectors such as construction, said an official from Sekong province’s Department of Public Health.

Residents and workers often carelessly discard cans and bottles, which sit in the open, fill with water and draw mosquitoes, he added.

“Also, water tanks without proper closures in restrooms are ideal places for the spread of mosquitoes,” he said.

Preventing the spread

During the rainy season, authorities in Vientiane usually spray insecticides in communities, but one villager observed that they have not yet done so this year in her community and others.

“There are many mosquitoes around our communities this year, and this rainy season the numbers of them is getting much too high,” she said, citing poor water flows in canals and an abundance of discarded bottles and cans.

The woman, however, said she saw workers spraying insecticide around hotels, hospitals and large buildings in the city.

A technician examines Aedes aegypti mosquito larvae, July 22, 2024. (Josue Decavele/Reuters)

Many provincial health departments send public health workers to villages to educate residents about preventing dengue infections and destroying places where mosquitoes lay eggs.

In 2023, Laos’ Health Ministry and Vientiane’s public health department with support from Save the Children launched a pilot program in two districts of Vientiane to reduce the spread of dengue by releasing mosquitoes with the Wolbachia bacteria to mate with domestic mosquitos.

The natural bacteria that is harmless to ecosystems and humans makes it difficult for the bugs to transmit viruses, including dengue, to humans.

But the effects of the program would not be immediate, according to Save the Children.

Translated by Phouvong. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Matt Reed.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Lao.

This post was originally published on Radio Free.
July 29, 2024

Parents urge Laos’ state-run media to publish more human trafficking news

Laos’s state-run media outlets should regularly publish news items about human trafficking victims to better publicize the issue in a country where young people continue to fall victim to cyberscam operations in neighboring countries, several parents of trafficking victims told Radio Free Asia.

If government officials talked to newspapers and broadcast outlets about individual cases – or about the general issue of human trafficking – there would be more awareness among younger Lao people, the parents said.

“Up until now, everything has been silent and human traffickers are not charged with any law,” said one parent who asked for anonymity because of safety concerns.

“My daughter recently told me that human traffickers are still looking for young Lao people to work as scammers in Burma.”

The parents spoke to RFA ahead of Tuesday’s World Day Against Trafficking.

In recent years, secret sites have proliferated throughout Southeast Asia as the COVID-19 pandemic forced criminal networks to shift their strategies for making money. Vast networks of human trafficking claim over 150,000 victims a year in the region.

In one case, several dozen young Laotians were trafficked and held captive in a nondescript building on the Burmese-Thai border, isolated from the outside world, tortured and forced into a particular kind of labor: to work as a cyber-scammer.

“They are lured to work with promised high paid jobs in town,” a northern Laos government official told RFA. “It is because they are from countryside areas, and they lack awareness of anti-human trafficking.”

But even with a wider understanding of the risks, young people in Laos’ rural areas are still tempted by work outside the country because of high inflation and a lack of high-paying jobs at home, the official said.

“Even with regular publicity about anti-human trafficking, economic hardship makes people have no choice,” he said. “They have to take risks to get jobs.”

In May, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes set up an Emergency Response Network to help Laos and other countries in the region combat human trafficking and scamming activities.

In the past, Laos has relied on other forms of foreign aid to address human trafficking and scamming crimes.

But a Ministry of Public Security official told RFA that the government just doesn’t have enough money or personnel to investigate every case of human trafficking or to investigate the traffickers who visit rural areas to recruit young people under false pretenses.

The government’s anti-human trafficking committee reported in December there were 24 human trafficking cases last year, with 53 victims rescued and transferred to rehabilitation centers, according to Lao Deputy Minister of Public Security Khamking Phouilamanyvong, who is a vice chairman of the committee.

Translated by Phouvong. Edited by Matt Reed.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Lao.

This post was originally published on Radio Free.
July 28, 2024

Laos, Thailand mark first direct passenger train between Bangkok, Vientiane

The first direct passenger train between Bangkok and Vientiane arrived earlier this month.

Previously, passengers could ride from Bangkok to the Thai city of Nong Kai on the border with Laos. But now they can travel straight into Vientiane – and also have the option of transferring to the high-speed rail line that travels north to Kunming in southwest China.

The first State Railway of Thailand train began servicing the route on July 19. A return train on July 20 left Vientiane at about 6:25 p.m. and arrived in Bangkok at about 7:35 a.m. the next day.

Prices ranged from between 158,000 kip (US$7) to 530 million (US$24) kip. It was so popular that officials added an additional carriage after passengers bought most of the available tickets.

“I always commuted by train when I was studying,” one Lao passenger told Radio Free Asia. “I wanted my kids to take this train, so they could experience it.”

Eventually, passengers could travel from Bangkok and Vientiane on a high-speed rail line.

Earlier this year, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Thailand’s prime minister that he hopes to speed up construction of a high-speed rail line in Thailand that would connect with Laos’ high speed line, which China built in 2021 as part of its Belt & Road Initiative.

China has said that it plans to construct and connect a 3,000-kms (1,864-miles) pan-Asian railway network, in which Chinese rail lines would extend all the way to the tip of the Malay Peninsula, linking Beijing to Singapore.

Edited by Matt Reed.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Lao.

This post was originally published on Radio Free.
July 28, 2024

Laos, Thailand mark first direct passenger train between Bangkok, Vientiane

The first direct passenger train between Bangkok and Vientiane arrived earlier this month.

Previously, passengers could ride from Bangkok to the Thai city of Nong Kai on the border with Laos. But now they can travel straight into Vientiane – and also have the option of transferring to the high-speed rail line that travels north to Kunming in southwest China.

The first State Railway of Thailand train began servicing the route on July 19. A return train on July 20 left Vientiane at about 6:25 p.m. and arrived in Bangkok at about 7:35 a.m. the next day.

Prices ranged from between 158,000 kip (US$7) to 530 million (US$24) kip. It was so popular that officials added an additional carriage after passengers bought most of the available tickets.

“I always commuted by train when I was studying,” one Lao passenger told Radio Free Asia. “I wanted my kids to take this train, so they could experience it.”

Eventually, passengers could travel from Bangkok and Vientiane on a high-speed rail line.

Earlier this year, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Thailand’s prime minister that he hopes to speed up construction of a high-speed rail line in Thailand that would connect with Laos’ high speed line, which China built in 2021 as part of its Belt & Road Initiative.

China has said that it plans to construct and connect a 3,000-kms (1,864-miles) pan-Asian railway network, in which Chinese rail lines would extend all the way to the tip of the Malay Peninsula, linking Beijing to Singapore.

Edited by Matt Reed.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Lao.

This post was originally published on Radio Free.
July 5, 2024

280 Chinese arrested in Laos for alleged online scamming

Lao and Chinese police have arrested and deported 280 Chinese who allegedly worked in an online fraud operation at an illegal call center in the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone in northern Laos, state media and people familiar with the situation said.

The murky Chinese-run special zone along the Mekong River in Bokeo province is a gambling and tourism hub catering to Chinese visitors as well as a haven for online fraud, human trafficking, prostitution and illegal drug activities.

Scamming operations run by Chinese nationals who try to trick people into fake investments are rife in the zone and usually employ Laotians and other Asians trafficked to the area to work in the call centers. Many of the workers are mistreated and prevented from leaving the premises.

During the arrests on June 20, authorities seized nearly 460 computers and 1,345 mobile phones from the suspects, according to a Lao Security News report.

An officer at the SEZ’s Security Department told Radio Free Asia that his department was not ready to comment on the arrests and deportations, which took place three days after the Chinese were apprehended.

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A Laotian who works in the SEZ, who like other sources in this report requested anonymity for safety reasons, said authorities recently stepped up patrols there and likely had arrest warrants from Beijing to apprehend the Chinese because they allegedly scammed their own countrymen.

Legal experts told RFA that the Chinese were deported right away because Laos and China have an extradition treaty, and that they would be tried in China because they allegedly committed crimes against fellow nationals.

Root causes

But some Laotians said the latest round of arrests would not eradicate the root cause of the problem.

“Wiping out all these scamming activities is almost impossible because some Lao officials must be behind the schemes,” said a Bokeo province resident, referring to rampant corruption among Lao authorities.

“So many Chinese live in the SEZ and many of them are bad elements,” he added. “It’s very hard to get rid of all the bad guys.”

A Facebook screenshot of a post by Lao Security News, showing alleged Chinese scammers being deported to China from Laos, June 30, 2024. (Lao Security News via Facebook)

Hundreds of other Chinese nationals have been arrested since September 2023 for suspected involvement in scamming operations in the SEZ.

In January, Laos repatriated 268 Chinese citizens suspected of scamming while living or working at the SEZ.

In November 2023, Lao authorities arrested more than 430 Chinese nationals who appeared to be involved in fraudulent call center operations in the SEZ, and handed them over to their Chinese counterparts for deportation.

And that September, the Lao Ministry of Public Security deported 164 Chinese arrested in Vientiane and other Lao provinces, including Bokeo. Nearly 50 of them were arrested in the Golden Triangle SEZ and believed to be involved in running call centers.

Facebooker intimidated

A Lao Facebook user who posted an online comment criticizing the government’s failure to rescue victims of human trafficking from the SEZ’s Chinese-run call centers told RFA on Wednesday that police showed up at his house and demanded he remove the post, saying it defamed the government.

“They wanted to cover up that story or they didn’t want me to say anything about that,” he said. “For me, I just wanted to tell the truth.”

The man said he knows many other Facebook users whom police have warned or arrested and detained for three to six months for posting comments on social media about the country’s worsening economic and financial conditions.

“Some of them were so scared that they fled to other countries,” he said.

A Facebook screenshot of a post by Lao Security News, showing alleged Chinese scammers being deported to China from Laos, June 30, 2024. (Lao Security News via Facebook)

An employee at a state-run media outlet told RFA the same day that Laotians are afraid of posting criticism of the government online because authorities will come after them, order them to remove the content, and may seek to punish them.

“They’ll look for you, and you won’t be safe,” he said. “That’s why our Lao people are afraid to speak out.”

“Our laws might state that people are free to express themselves but in practice, they can’t,” he added.

Article 44 of the country’s constitution guarantees citizens freedoms of expression, assembly, association and protest.

But Article 117 of the Penal Code states that those who conduct propaganda activities against and slander the state or distort the policies of the one-party state and government can be jailed for up to five years and be fined 5 million-20 million kip, or US$225-900.

Individuals who have their own social media accounts must register with the government and are obligated to report the truth and not to criticize the party or government, said another employee at a state-run media agency in southern Laos.

In 2019, the Lao Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism mandated that all individuals and legal entities that post news stories on social media had to register with it or face legal consequences.

Two years later, the Lao government set up a committee to monitor content and news posted on social media.

Translated by RFA Lao. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Lao.

This post was originally published on Radio Free.
July 1, 2024

Beijing pressed Laos to include Taiwan in visa policy for Chinese visitors: Taipei

A decision by Laos to include Taiwan in a policy to attract more Chinese tourists was made under pressure from Beijing and is aimed at giving the false impression that Taiwan is part of China, said Taiwan’s foreign ministry.

The Lao government announced on Wednesday that Chinese nationals may visit without a visa for up to 15 days as part of a group tour. It also provided an itinerary approved by its Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism.

The policy, valid from July 1 to Dec. 31, also applies to tourists from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, the government said in its announcement.

Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Taiwan and China were not subordinate to each other and Laos should not collaborate with China to undermine Taiwan’s sovereignty and international standing.

Taiwan had shared its position regarding the issue with the Lao government through Taiwan’s representative office in Vietnam, it added.

The ministry explained that there has been no change to a rule requiring Taiwanese tourists traveling to Laos to obtain an electronic or on-arrival visa.

China regards Taiwan as a renegade province that should be reunited with the mainland, by force if necessary. Since separating from mainland China in 1949, Taiwan has been self-governing.

Tensions have increased since the administration of the island’s then-president, Tsai Ing-wen, took power in 2016, refusing to acknowledge the “one China” principle.

During a January presidential election in Taiwan, China took various actions, including floating balloons through Taiwanese airspace and deploying aircraft carriers in the Taiwan Strait, exacerbating tensions and increasing public unease.

China has convinced several of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies to switch their recognition to Beijing in recent years, leaving only 12 countries maintaining official relations with Taiwan.

Chinese influence on Laos

In recent years, China has sought to increase its influence in Laos’ mostly rural economy.

China has created a political and economic strategy to persuade Laos to sign agreements for important infrastructure. This plan, known as the Ten-Year Long-Term Program (2016-2025), aims to connect major cities in Laos, maintain a growth rate of at least 7.5%, and reduce poverty to less than 10% of the population.

But partly as a result of the major infrastructure projects, Laos has become burdened with debt of about US$12.2 billion, equal to 64.8% of its gross domestic product..

In its political and economic strategy for Laos, China emphasizes the importance of expanding trade by strengthening market relations and establishing special economic zones.

China exports primarily high-tech goods like computers, cars, and insulated wires to Laos, with an aim, analysts say, of increasing Laos’ dependence on Chinese technologies.

Edited by Mike Firn.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Taejun Kang for RFA.

This post was originally published on Radio Free.
June 27, 2024

Laos agrees to build dam in remote, mountainous area near Vietnam border

Government officials have signed an agreement with a joint venture company to build a US$184 million dam in northern Laos that will send most of its generated electricity to neighboring Vietnam, a Ministry of Energy and Mines official told Radio Free Asia.

The hydropower project on the Nam Neun river in a mountainous area near the Vietnam border will generate 124 megawatts and is the latest dam planned for the impoverished, landlocked country, which has already built dozens with the aim of selling 20,000 megawatts of electricity to neighboring countries by 2030 and becoming the “battery of Southeast Asia.”

The dam will be built in an area that straddles Xiengkhouang and Houaphan provinces and is expected to be completed by 2027, according to the ministry official who requested anonymity to speak freely about a government matter.

The concession contract for the Nam Neun 1 Dam project was signed at a ceremony in Vientiane on June 19.

The project will be overseen by Vientiane-based Phongsubthavy Group Sole Co. Ltd., but a Vietnamese company will conduct the feasibility study and carry out the construction work, the ministry official said. The total cost is estimated to be.

Power generated by this dam will be exported to Vietnam through a 220 kilovolt transmission line, according to the agreement.

A preliminary study determined that some reserved forest will be cleared, and the reservoir behind the dam will flood other areas of reserved and protected forest, according to the ministry official.

Because the dam will be built in a remote area, no residents will have to relocate – a common source of complaints from Laotians on other hydropower projects.

The Nam Neun flows into a tributary of the Mekong River – the Nam Ngiep river – in Xiengkhouang province.

A Xiengkhouang province villager told RFA that the dam could still affect the lives of people downriver who depend on the river as a food source.

“Once the dam construction is completed, it will absolutely affect the environment and everything will not be the same,” he said. “The government and the relevant organizations and companies should conduct a feasibility study on its impacts to local people and the environment.”

Though the Lao government sees power generation as a way to boost the country’s economy, many of the projects have been controversial because of their environmental impact, displacement of people without adequate compensation and questionable financial and power demand arrangements.

Translated by Phouvong. Edited by Matt Reed.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Lao.

This post was originally published on Radio Free.
June 26, 2024

Drug runners in Laos shoot at police, abandon vehicles packed with meth and heroin

Alleged drug runners in northwest Laos shot at police and fled on foot into dense jungle leaving behind two vans packed with meth and heroin, a police social media post said.

At about 9 p.m. on June 21, officers noticed that the two vehicles did not have license plates and ordered them to pull over for inspection. The occupants of the vehicles allegedly shot at the police and abandoned the vehicles, fleeing into the forest, the Bokeo province police department said on its Facebook page.

After inspecting the vehicles, they found around 5.8 million meth pills and 225 kilograms (almost 500 pounds) of heroin.

It’s the latest incident in Laos’ struggle to eradicate drugs from proliferating inside the country.

Lao Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone reported on June 10 to the Lao National Assembly that cracking down on drugs remains a national priority and in the first half of this year, the government was able to arrest 2,616 drug suspects.

“Most of the drugs are from either Myanmar or China because they can’t be produced here in our country,” an officer of the Bokeo Police Department, who like all unnamed sources in this report requested anonymity for security reasons, told RFA Lao.

He said that part of Laos is prone to drug smuggling, and that by law, samples of the seized drugs would be sent to a lab to verify that they are indeed meth and heroin. The rest will be destroyed.

The officer explained that they did not pursue the suspects because they were armed and it was very dark in the forest, so they didn’t want to take unnecessary risk.

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A resident who lives near where the incident occurred told RFA he heard gunshots at around 9 a.m.

“It was at night and nobody at my house had gone to bed yet,” he said, “The next morning, I found out that there was a clash between police and drug smugglers.”

He said he and his neighbors were disappointed that the suspects were not apprehended.

Another resident said that he wished the police would have brought the suspects in because it is likely they are smuggling drugs in from other countries.

There is a large market for drugs in Laos, particularly among younger people, an employee of a rehab center in the province said.

“Many Laotians, especially youths aged 15 or 16 have become addicted to drugs and are admitted to the rehab center. Sometimes, the center has up to 30 of them,” she said.

“Drugs, particularly meth, are available anywhere in our village and region,” she said. “Drugs destroy people’s lives. If the government can’t stop this, many more people will be affected.”

Translated by Max Avary. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Lao.

This post was originally published on Radio Free.
June 13, 2024

Police in Laos find 19 girls and women selling secret sex during restaurant raid

Police discovered that 19 teenage girls and women were selling surreptitious sex at a restaurant during a raid in central Laos that resulted in the arrest of the restaurant’s two owners, a police officer told Radio Free Asia.

Some of the girls were as young as 13, according to a village official in Khammouane province’s Hinboun district, who like many other sources in this report requested anonymity for security reasons.

“The restaurant has been shut down,” the police officer said. “For the girls and women, we just told them to go back home to their parents. We didn’t fine or punish them.”

The restaurant owners will be charged with human trafficking, he said.

Authorities went to the restaurant on June 7 because of its loud noise, the village official said. There are three other restaurants in the village that are also suspected of offering prostitution, he said.

Before they were sent home to their families, the girls and women underwent a re-education session in which they were told that providing sex service is against Lao tradition and law.

“The purpose of today’s session is to make sure that the participants understand the guidelines and policy of the government and Party,” Soukkhaseum Sitthideth, president of the Lao Women’s Union of Khammouane province said in a video of the session seen by RFA.

“Lao women are traditionally conservative but nowadays in a digital era, our girls and women have changed,” she said. “Our tradition and culture have been affected by the changes. A great number of our girls and women have adopted a new lifestyle.”

Laos faces many challenges when it comes to fighting human trafficking, including not having the resources to properly fund enforcement against those who trick or force young people into illicit work.

Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath have left many Laotians in desperate financial situations amid a faltering economy and rampant unemployment.

In February, police near Vientiane raided nightclubs, restaurants and karaoke bars along a busy highway and found 47 sex workers, including four girls under 18 years old.

In that case, police also determined that most of the girls and women were from poor, rural families, an officer said at the time.

Translated by Max Avary. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Lao.

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May 14, 2024

As Chinese tourists flock to Laos, illegal Chinese tour guides fill language gap

Chinese travel companies are illegally hiring Chinese to be tour guides in Laos to meet growing demand for Chinese speakers as visitor numbers surge after the pandemic border closures were lifted in 2022, residents in the country told Radio Free Asia.

While many Lao citizens speak Chinese, most choose to work in other industries, and the Chinese companies actually prefer to hire their own, even if they lack work permits and are not registered with the police, the residents said.

“Yes, we lack Chinese-speaking Lao tour guides these days,” said a Lao guide, who like other sources in this report insisted on not being identified for security reasons. “Some of them found something else to do when COVID hit Laos and they’re not coming back to work as tour guides anymore.”

Laos is a popular destination for Chinese visitors – many from neighboring Kuming province – because the two countries are connected by rail and have good diplomatic relations, sources said.

Chinese tourists visit Luang Prabang, Laos, March 2024. (RFA)

According to official statistics, nearly 700,000 Chinese visited Laos in 2023, the third-highest number behind Thailand and Vietnam. In the first quarter, that trend continued, with more than 240,000 Chinese visited the landlocked Southeast Asian country.

There is no reliable data on the number of illegal Chinese tour guides, but many are known to work in Luang Prabang province and in the capital Vientiane, both popular tourist spots.

As of May, there are 270 registered Chinese-speaking Lao tour guides nationwide; 140 work in Luang Prabang province and 60 in Vientiane.

Chinese package tours

Chinese tourists, who typically are herded around on buses from site to site, prefer to use Chinese tour companies based in Laos, the guide said. Those companies arrange transportation into and around Laos with other Chinese companies, lodging with hotels run by Chinese owners, and meals with restaurants owned by Chinese.

The tour companies sometimes will hire only one or two Lao guides to hide their many illegal Chinese guides, the sources said.

A third guide said that sometimes the Chinese companies will hire Lao guides who speak languages other than Chinese, but they rarely ever do their jobs as guides and are only there to bail out the illegal Chinese guides.

Chinese tourists visit Luang Prabang, Laos, March 2024. (RFA)

If police approach a tour group to ask if they have a guide registered with the police, the Lao tour guides will show up with their credentials, while the Chinese guides lay low, another guide, who is registered, told RFA.

Local guides are skeptical that Chinese guides explain Lao history and culture accurately.

“I have seen that when the Chinese tour guides explain something, sometimes the tourists will laugh,” she said. “When the Chinese tour guides lead the tour groups to temples, I am not sure if they explain about the Buddha statues with the correct information or not.”

Despite the growing number of Lao youths interested in learning Chinese, most of them choose to work as interpreters in other sectors rather than to work as tour guides.

A steakhouse with a Chinese-language menu in Luang Prabang, Laos, March 2024. (RFA)

And while some Lao youth speak Chinese language, they do not know Lao history and culture well enough, an English-speaking Lao guide told RFA.

To deal with the shortage and encourage those who left the industry during the pandemic to return, the Lao Mass Media, Culture and Tourism Institute recently announced plans to conduct training for national level Lao tour guides from May to July, an official said.

“Now, Chinese tourists are visiting Laos more and more, but we still do not have enough Chinese-speaking Lao tour guides,” the official said. “Thus, we will have tour guide training for those who want to be tour guides as priority to fill this gap.”

Translated by Phouvong. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Lao.

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April 29, 2024

Counterfeit bills spread in northern Laos

A gas station in northern Laos reported that a customer passed 14 fake 50,000 kip bills (worth US$2.34 each) to fill up the car’s gas tank, the owner of the establishment told Radio Free Asia.

It’s one of many incidents of counterfeit bills surfacing at businesses in the region since the national bank’s April 26 warning that fake bills were circulating in the country.

The problem seems to be most acute in the north, around the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone, a de facto Chinese-controlled tourist zone centered on the Kings Romans Casino in Bokeo province.

“When we touched the bank notes, we could feel the difference. They also don’t look authentic,” the gas station owner, from the same province, who like all anonymous sources in this report requested anonymity for security reasons, told RFA Lao.

He said shortly afterward, bank employees came to receive a payment from the business. When the bills were run through a counting machine, they did not pass muster. The bank confiscated all but one of the counterfeit notes.

“We kept only one for future reference,” he said.

In Laos, the 50,000-kip note is the most frequently used, and the 100,000 kip note (worth $4.68) is the highest denomination.

With the rapid depreciation of the kip and soaring inflation, people now have to carry around large numbers of bills for many purchases or transactions.

Seems widespread

One day after the visit from the bank, the bank employees returned to the gas station with police to investigate. They said they were still not sure who was behind the counterfeiting scheme, which seems widespread.

A storekeeper in Bokeo said eight counterfeit bills were discovered at her store.

“Somebody must have spent them at our store. I don’t remember who it was because we have so many customers,” she said. “I found out when I deposited the money at our bank.”

The bank double-checked all the notes in her deposit and called her with the bad news, she said. She gave all the information she had to the bank to help with their investigation.

A bank employee from Bokeo said that every single note, either Lao or foreign is carefully checked.

“In the time since the national bank issued the warning, we luckily haven’t received any fake bank notes,” the bank employee said.

Tips on how to detect them

A national bank official confirmed that they issued the warning and offered tips on how to detect counterfeit currency.

“First, touch it. The fake ones are softer,” he said. “Second, look at it through light. You’ll see a series of dark lines embedded in the real bank notes, while the fake ones don’t have lines.”

The national bank last year issued similar warnings about counterfeit 100,000-kip, 50,000-kip and 1,000 Thai baht ($27) notes surfacing nationwide.

In April 2019, police in the town of Luang Prabang in northern Laos arrested three Chinese nationals for spending counterfeit 50,000-kip and 100,000-kip banknotes at a market.

According to Lao law, those caught making fake bills can be jailed between five to 15 years and fined between 50 million to 500 million kip ($2,340-$23,400). Those caught using the bills can be jailed between three months and five years, and fined between 2 million and 5 million kip ($94-$234).

Translated by Max Avary. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Lao.

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April 2, 2024

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March 28, 2024

16 Indians rescued from scam operations in Laos

Sixteen Indian nationals who said they were lured in Mumbai to work as online scammers in Laos were rescued this week from the Chinese-run Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone, an official with knowledge of the situation told Radio Free Asia on Friday.

The zone, which sits along the Mekong River in northwestern Bokeo province, is a gambling and tourism hub catering to Chinese tourists and has been described as a de-facto Chinese colony.

It has become a haven for cyber scams, prostitution, money laundering, drug trafficking, and human and wildlife trafficking by organized criminal networks.

The Indians had been told by recruiters in Mumbai that they would get jobs related to cryptocurrency in Thailand’s Chiang Rai province, said the official, who like others in this report, did not want to be identified so he could speak freely.

But when they arrived, the Chinese bosses loaded them on a boat that crossed the Mekong River to Bokeo province, where the Indians said they were forced to work as online scammers or fake call center workers in the zone.

Their plight came to light after one of the Indians managed to escape and return to India, where he filed a complaint with Mumbai police on March 24, The Laotian Times reported.

One Lao official said that they had received a tip-off email from someone who knew about their predicament, and “took action right away to help these youngsters.”

Hurt and abused

An official involved in anti-human trafficking efforts said the Chinese running the operations physically abused some of the Indians, denied them food, and locked them up if they didn’t generate revenue.

“The Chinese bosses physically hurt the Indian nationals with hammers and sticks,” he told RFA. “They simply had to work for free or without getting paid.”

Anti-human trafficking agents in India arrested two people believed to be in charge of agents who recruited up to 40 young Indian nationals so they could be sent to Laos to work as online scammers, said the official.

The Indian Embassy in Laos posted on its website an advisory for Indian youths to beware of fake job offers from Laos. (India Ministry of External Affairs)

Other Indians in the zone who find themselves in the same predicament contact Lao government officers daily for help, said a second official involved in anti-human trafficking activities.

Since the beginning of the year, about 30 Indians have contacted a Lao anti-human trafficking office, which can help them find a safe temporary place to stay and send them home once authorities receive a tip about them, he said.

Some information comes from India’s Ministry of External Affairs asking for help to get Indian nationals out of the zone, the second official said.

It is unknown how many Indians are still working in the zone, he added.

South Korean and Malaysian nationals have also fallen victim to traffickers who hand them over to Chinese in the zone to engage in cyber fraud, said the official with knowledge of the situation.

The Embassy of India in Vientiane issued a recent notice on its website that it was aware that Indian nations were being lured for employment in Thailand or Laos as “digital sales and marketing executives” and “customer support services” by dubious companies involved in call-center scams and cryptocurrency fraud in the Golden Triangle SEZ.

Translated by Phouvong for RFA Lao. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcom Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Lao.

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March 22, 2024

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