BANGKOK — Late on Friday, Thai authorities quietly handed over Y Quynh Bdap, a Vietnamese activist long detained in Bangkok, to officials from Vietnam, despite urgent warnings from human-rights organisations that his life could now be at grave risk.
Bdap, a co-founder of Montagnards Stand for Justice (MSJ), which advocates for the rights of ethnic minorities in Vietnam’s Central Highlands, was arrested in June 2024 while in Thailand. Thai courts had earlier agreed to Vietnam’s extradition request, invoking a ruling from 2024.
His lawyer confirmed on Monday that Bdap “disappeared from the custody of Thai authorities on Friday,” adding: “As of now, we still don’t know his whereabouts.” She described the hand-over as a clear breach of Thailand’s own laws against torture and enforced disappearance.
Vietnam had convicted him in absentia in January 2024, sentencing him to ten years in prison on terrorism charges linked to alleged anti-government unrest in 2023, charges Bdap denied. He maintained that his work was peaceful, limited to reporting alleged human-rights violations against the predominantly Christian “Montagnard” indigenous communities.
Human-rights organisations had repeatedly urged Thailand not to proceed with extradition. Amnesty International warned that sending Bdap back to Vietnam, a country where Montagnards have long reported persecution, torture, and denial of religious and civil freedoms, would violate not only international norms but also Thai law, which forbids returning individuals to places where they are at real risk of mistreatment.
Activists and watchdogs have condemned the decision as a blatant example of “transnational repression,” where governments cooperate to silence dissent beyond their borders.
For Bdap’s family and supporters, the fear now is uncertainty. With no verified location or access, they worry about what might become of him. For many human-rights observers, the extradition marks a worrying precedent: a nation pledging human-rights commitments, now handing over a refugee-activist to a state with documented abuses even as it holds a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council.
This episode raises urgent questions about the balance between diplomatic cooperation and the protection of political dissidents, about whether countries like Thailand will uphold the principle of non-refoulement, or bow to external pressure at the cost of human rights.