Source photographThe neighbourhood of Bangkok where the Montagnards live. Credit: Radu Diaconu/Al Jazeera. View with the original reporting →
Al Jazeera’s 2017 feature followed Dega families in and around Bangkok as they described flight, informal work, language barriers, arrest risk, and long waits for protection decisions.
Lives recorded in a particular moment
Al Jazeera reported in March 2017 on a Bangkok-area community it described as 150 Dega families. Interviewees from the Central Highlands said they had fled religious persecution, land loss, arbitrary arrest, or mistreatment. The report also included the Vietnamese Embassy’s denial of those allegations and its position that the people described had left for economic reasons.
The feature documented daily insecurity in Thailand: fear of immigration arrest, irregular work, difficulty accessing school and health care, and a shortage of Jarai interpreters for asylum interviews. Several people described long waits or repeated rescheduling as they pursued UNHCR decisions, while local churches and volunteer groups helped with rent, medical costs, and school access.
The reported “150 families” is an article-specific description from 2017. It is not an official census, a current total, or a basis for calculating the number of Dega refugees in Thailand today. The enduring value of the feature is its account of the practical and emotional conditions of prolonged uncertainty.
Terminology note
Al Jazeera uses “Montagnard,” a French colonial term that remains common in international reporting. Operation Siam uses Dega in its own voice and retains the source term when identifying or linking to the original feature.
Sources and further reading
- Al Jazeera — Montagnards: Escaping Vietnam, stateless in Thailand — Original feature published 24 March 2017.
External links are provided for verification and further reading. A citation does not imply endorsement, partnership, or control by the cited institution.
This news brief is an original Operation Siam summary of the cited reporting. It preserves source attribution, does not reproduce the source article, and does not imply endorsement, partnership, or independent verification by Operation Siam.