In response to reports of cooperation between Thai and Vietnamese authorities that led to the arrest and detention of anti-corruption activist Le Chi Thanh, currently held at Bangkok’s Suan Phlu Immigration Detention Centre in Thailand, Amnesty International’s Co-Regional Director Montse Ferrer said:
“The detention of Le Chi Thanh is the latest troubling instance of transnational repression by Thai and Vietnamese authorities. The arbitrary revocation of Le Chi Thanh’s passport is alarming, indicating an attempt by Vietnamese authorities to coerce an activist living in exile into returning and then facing persecution.
“The Thai authorities must immediately release Le Chi Thanh and refrain from returning him to Viet Nam, where he could face serious human rights violations. We also call on the international community to publicly condemn the Vietnamese government for its ongoing cross-border efforts to silence peaceful dissent.
“No one should be returned to a country where they are at real risk of serious human rights violations. Any such return will breach the principle of non-refoulement as laid out in international human rights.”
Background
Thai immigration police arrested Le Chi Thanh and detained him at Bangkok’s Suan Phlu Immigration Detention Centre (IDC) on 6 March 2026. Amnesty International received credible reports that personnel from the Embassy of Viet Nam in Thailand undertook a visit to the IDC on the same day.
According to Le Chi Thanh’s legal representative, the activist lawfully entered Thailand using a valid Vietnamese passport set to expire in 2031 and subsequently obtained a Thai work permit. Despite this, Thai authorities arrested him and claimed his work permit had become invalid due to the Vietnamese authorities’ cancellation of his passport. Thanh had never been informed by the Vietnamese authorities of this decision prior to the arrest.
Le Chi Thanh is a former police officer and prominent activist who used social media platforms to speak out against reports of corruption and misconduct within the public security sector. In April 2021 he was arrested for allegedly “resisting officers” during an encounter with traffic police in Thu Duc City. He was sentenced to two years in prison in January 2022, then received an additional prison sentence of three years for “abusing democratic freedoms to infringe on State and individuals’ legitimate rights and interests,” under Article 331 of Vietnam’s Penal Code due to his Facebook posts which criticized Vietnamese authorities.
During his court hearing, Thanh reported being tortured to coerce confessions in pre-trial detention, including being beaten and hung by his arms and legs for seven days. In November 2022, UN experts sent a letter to the Vietnamese government raising concern over his claims of torture. His case echoes Amnesty International’s past findings that Vietnamese prisoners of conscience, including human rights defenders, face systemic risks of torture and other ill-treatment in detention.
UN experts have previously documented a pattern in which Vietnamese officials visited Montagnard and Hmong refugees held in Thai detention facilities to pressure them into ‘voluntarily’ returning to Viet Nam. These incidents raise serious concerns about Thailand’s ability and willingness to provide effective protection to Vietnamese refugees, who remain especially vulnerable to intimidation and coercion by Vietnamese officials.
Civil society groups and UN experts have repeatedly warned of growing cooperation between Thai and Vietnamese authorities to target dissidents. Their concerns are reinforced by a series of alarming incidents, including the enforced disappearance of Thai activists in Viet Nam in January 2019, the abduction of Vietnamese blogger Truong Duy Nhat in Thailand later that month and the enforced disappearance of Vietnamese independent journalist Duong Van Thai in April 2023. Most recently, in February 2026, Thai authorities forcibly returned Indigenous Montagnard human rights defender Y Quynh Bdap to Viet Nam, underscoring an escalating pattern of cross-border repression.
