Another Lao activist disappears in Thailand

Rights group says Khieo Lapchanh had received threats over videos critical of Lao government

A Lao content creator and activist based in Thailand has not been seen in nearly two weeks and concerns are growing that he may have been abducted or taken back to Laos, a Thailand-based human rights organisation says.

Khieo Lapchanh, 26, was last seen on Sept 15 in Samut Sakhon, a day before a scheduled asylum interview at the offices of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Bangkok, the Manushya Foundation said.

Khieo first entered Thailand in 2019 and had been living and working in a restaurant in Samut Sakhon. In a letter that the foundation helped him prepare, he said he decided to request asylum after receiving threats over videos he started posting on Facebook in late 2025.

His “Khiew Chennel” account on the social network, which contained a number of videos critical of the Lao government, had 159,000 followers as of this week.

There is a high possibility that Khieo’s disappearance is related to transnational repression, Emilie Palamy Pradichit, founder and executive director of the Manushya Foundation, said in a statement.

“Digital transnational repression does not stay confined to digital space. It can expose activists to physical danger,” she said. “Khieo had already stopped speaking out online because he feared for his life. Now he is missing.”

Ms Emilie told Radio Free Asia that she first noticed Khieo’s disappearance on Sept 16.

“I called him because I was supposed to take him to his UNHCR interview, but he did not respond,” she said. “On Sept 18, I informed the local police of his disappearance.”

The owner of the restaurant where Khieo worked, who identified herself only as Kiatsuda, told RFA she had called him on Sept 15 when he did not show up for work.

“His phone was off so I thought Khieo had quit his job without informing me,” she said.

After he didn’t show up on the following two days, she went to Khieo’s apartment on the 18th but was unable to find him, she said. She also filed a police report.

Not the first

Though the circumstances of Khieo’s disappearance remain unknown, his case is not the first of its kind.

Od Sayavong, a democracy activist who had protested against the Lao government while living in Thailand, disappeared in August 2019. Thai police say no progress has been made in the investigation.

In November of the same year, Phetphouthon Philachane, a Lao migrant who had taken part in protests in front of the Lao embassy in Bangkok, disappeared in Vientiane while visiting relatives.

In May 2023, the body of democracy activist Bounsuan Kitiyano was found in Ubon Ratchathani province. He had been shot three times.

News of the disappearance of Khieo Lapchanh comes just days after Vietnamese police ⁠arrested ⁠three people accused of terrorism, in ​an operation that a pro-democracy group says ‌was conducted on Cambodian soil.

Two of the three held Australian and Norwegian citizenship but all three were Vietnamese in origin. Hanoi said the men had admitted to being members of Viet Tan, a US-based pro-democracy group that the Communist government designates as a terrorist ‌organisation.

Human rights activists for years have condemned practices in Southeast Asia, under which authorities in one country will assist their counterparts by harassing, arresting or unlawfully deporting foreign refugees and dissidents back to their home nations.

Human Rights Watch coined the term “swap mart” to describe the informal arrangement between Thailand and neighbouring governments such as Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and China.