Ethnic Hmong villagers walk past barbed wire at the Tham Krabok camp in Saraburi province, northeast of Bangkok, in 2004. Dozens of Hmong refugees barricaded themselves inside a detention centre in a "tense stand-off", forcing Thailand to postpone a plan to deport them, the United Nations' refugee agency said. Photo:Pornchai Kittiwongsakul/AFP

Hmong refugees smile during a ceremony at the Hmong refugee shelter at Wat Tham Krabok in Saraburi province, northeast Thailand, in 2005. Thousands of Lao Hmong are stuck in limbo in Thai camps as Bangkok and Vientiane discuss their fate in a case mixing the Vietnam War legacy with the quest of poor villagers for a better life abroad.(AFP/File/Pornchai Kittiwongsakul)