Fearful of China's reach abroad, dissidents try risky voyage
Asylum seekers languish in poverty and fear in Thailand, not knowing who to trust nor when they can be interviewed by UN refugee officials
Dong Junming was detained several times in China before he fled with his family to Bangkok in February last year. A year later, he was preparing to make a more desperate journey to evade Chinese authorities who still felt dangerously close.
In the months since he arrived in Thailand, dozens of Chinese asylum seekers have been sent back home by Thai authorities. Other dissidents have simply disappeared from Thailand and Hong Kong before re-emerging in mainland Chinese custody. Beijing appears increasingly eager to snatch back countrymen who have attempted to escape its grasp.
Dong is a member of the Falun Gong spiritual movement, which is banned in the mainland and whose members are persecuted there. He, his wife and daughter face a long wait to obtain refugee status and resettlement in a third country – they won’t even get an interview with the United Nations refugee agency until at least next year. In the meantime, he’s unable to work legally and his family’s travel documents have expired.
So Dong decided to flee once more. This time it would be by boat, to New Zealand, a hazardous journey of nearly 10,000km.
Dissidents fearful as Thailand, once a safe haven, strengthens ties with China
He would leave with six other Chinese adults, including a couple taking their two sons, aged one and seven. They believed New Zealand offered them the best chance of gaining refugee status.
Dong, as well as eight other Chinese dissidents living in Thailand who did not make the boat journey, described lives of anxiety and frustration bordering on outright despair in interviews with The Associated Press. Though free and under no immediate deportation threat, Dong said he feared what the future might bring. So when offered a berth on the yacht in January, he took it.