Thailand

ASEAN economic summit opens in Indonesia

MANADO, Indonesia (Xinhua) – The 43rd ASEAN Economic Ministers and Related Meetings opened here on Wednesday afternoon, involving ministers in charge of economic, commerce, trade and investment in ASEAN member states and dialogue partners. Representatives are about to continue their work on building the time-bound ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by […]

Changing of the guard in Thailand

All signs so far point to a smooth transition in Thailand after deposed former premier Thaksin Shinawatra’s Puea Thai party handed the Democrats a humbling election defeat. Future stability will be determined largely by how hard and how fast Thaksin’s sister Yingluck, the new prime minister, pushes for an amnesty […]

‘Thailand Must Be United Again’

Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra now lives in exile in Dubai. Sentenced in Thailand to two years in prison for abuse of office, Thaksin hopes his younger sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, will become the country’s new prime minister in July so he can return home. He talks to SPIEGEL about past mistakes and his […]

Ahmadiyya Release Offers Hope for Rohingya

BANGKOK – “We are so happy this day to be released,” said Haraan Sidique, boarding a bus at Bangkok’s Suan Plu Immigration Detention Center (IDC) on Monday morning after spending almost 7 months at a refugee prison in central Bangkok. Sidique is one of 96 Ahmadiyya refugees from Pakistan who […]

Photo of the Day: Praying for Freedom of Faith

Ahmadi refugees who sought to escape persecution by fleeing to Thailand were held for more than six months in Bangkok’s overcrowded immigration detention centers. A group of 94 Ahmadi Muslim refugees and two asylum seekers were released on bail on Monday. They await the results of resettlement applications, mainly to […]

Pakistani refugees released on bail Monday

A group of almost a hundred Pakistani refugees and asylum seekers, including several dozen children and a baby born in detention, will be released on bail Monday. The Thai Committee for Refugees, which helped organise the release, said the 96 people — most of whom were arrested in December — […]

Pakistani refugees freed on bail from Thai jail

BANGKOK – ALMOST 100 Pakistani refugees have been freed from Bangkok’s overcrowded immigration prison in an initiative spearheaded by Thai human rights activists. The Thai Committee for Refugees says the 96 members of Pakistan’s Ahmadiyya Muslim sect were freed on bail on Monday in the first such large-scale release of […]