Rescuers race to drain water inside Thai cave before rains

With more rain coming, Thai rescuers are racing against time to pump out water from a flooded cave before they can extract 12 boys and their soccer coach with minimum risk, officials said Thursday.

Thai rescue prepare diving suit makes their way down at the entrance to a cave complex where 12 boys and their soccer coach were trapped inside when heavy rains flooded the cave, in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai province, in northern Thailand, Wednesday, July 4, 2018.(AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

A firefighter who has been working on draining the water said that levels in parts of a passage leading to a chamber where the boys and the coach were found on Monday after missing for 10 days was still flooded all the way to the ceiling, making diving the only way out.

"What we worry most is the weather," Chiang Rai provincial Gov. Narongsak Osatanakorn told reporters. "We can't risk having the flood back into the cave."

He said he asked Thai navy SEALs in charge of extraction plans to estimate what sort of a risk would be involved to take them out and "what kind of readiness we can have today and decide if we can take that chance." He said that not all 13 may be extracted at the same time depending on their condition. He said earlier that the boys have been practicing wearing diving masks and breathing, but he doesn't believe they have attempted any practice dives.

Thai soldiers makes their way up at the entrance to a cave complex where 12 boys and their soccer coach went missing, in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai province, in northern Thailand, Wednesday, July 4, 2018. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

"This morning, I have asked for 13 sets of (diving) equipment to be prepared and checked the equipment lists and place them inside (the cave) in case we have to bring them out in this condition with less than 100 percent readiness," he said.

Officials have said they prefer to get the boys out as soon as possible because heavy rain is expected to start by Saturday, which almost surely will raise water levels again in the cave, making passage in some areas even more difficult if not impossible.

They are hoping that an upgraded draining effort can lower the water level in an area where it is still at the ceiling or just about. The idea is to get some headroom so the boys would not be reliant on scuba apparatus for a long stretch and could keep their heads above water.

The boys, aged 11-16, and their 25-year-old coach disappeared after they went exploring in the Tham Luang Nang Non cave in the northern province after a soccer game June 23.

Family members of the 12 boys and their soccer coach talks together after they were found alive, in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai province, in northern Thailand, Thursday, July 5, 2018. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Authorities said the boys, who appeared skinny but in good health in several videos released by the Thai navy, were being looked after by seven members of the Thai SEALs, including medics, who were staying with them inside the cave. They were mostly in stable condition and have received high-protein drinks.

In all of the videos, the boys appeared in good spirits. In the most recent video, a navy SEAL is shown treating minor cuts on the feet and legs of the boys with antibiotic ointment. Several of the boys are seen smiling as they interact with the navy SEAL, who cracks jokes.

Seeing the boys has boosted the mood of their family members, and officials are working to install an internet cable to the cave so that parents can talk to their children.

Kian Kamluang, whose 16-year-old son, Pornchai, is in the cave, said she had thought there was a 50 percent chance that her son would be found.

Family members of the 12 boys and their soccer coach hug with Thai officer after they were found alive, in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai province, in northern Thailand, Thursday, July 5, 2018. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

"It's like he has been given a new life," she said, adding that she'll never let her son go into a cave or near water again.

While efforts to pump out floodwaters are continuing, some Thai officials have indicated that heavy rains forecast for this weekend could force them to decide the boys should swim and dive out using the same complicated route of narrow passageways through which their rescuers entered.

Authorities said they were still exploring other options, such as scouring the mountainside for other ways into the cave and finding faster ways to pump water from the cave.

Cave rescue experts have said it could be safest to simply supply the boys where they are for now, and wait for the water to go down. That could take months, however, given that Thailand's rainy season typically lasts through October.

Family members of the 12 boys and their soccer coach talks together after they were found alive, in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai province, in northern Thailand, Thursday, July 5, 2018. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Experienced divers are wary of taking out the boys through the dark and dangerous waters still in the cave, especially since they are untrained.

"We are talking kilometers of transport under the water with zero visibility," said Claus Rasmusen, a certified cave diving instructor based in Thailand who has been helping Thai SEAL team with logistics. "It's difficult."

He said it was awkward, but possible, to teach them minimal skills.

"Nobody will teach anyone a full cave course, but trying to get them comfortable with masks, with the breathing, (is) completely different," he said. "Creating an environment that can make them safely get away, that's feasible."

BANGKOK (AP) — A leading international human rights organization on Thursday urged the Thai government to stop forcing political dissidents who fled to Thailand for safety to return to authoritarian home countries, where they may face torture, persecution or death.

In a new report, Human Rights Watch said Thai authorities repeatedly violated international law by expelling the dissidents, many of whom were registered with the United Nations as refugees and were awaiting resettlement in third countries.

The report, titled “We Thought We Were Safe,” analyzed 25 cases that took place in Thailand between 2014 and 2023.

Many of the cases involved the forcible repatriation of Cambodians, with the suspected involvement of Cambodian security personnel. But the group also listed cases where dissidents from Vietnam, Laos and China were “tracked down and abducted,” or “forcibly disappeared or killed.”

The report said that in return for tracking down and returning the dissidents, the Thai government received cooperation from Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam to spy on Thai dissidents who had fled their own homeland to escape political repression.

Human Rights Watch called this a quid-pro-quo form of transnational repression “in which foreign dissidents are effectively traded for critics of the Thai government living abroad."

The group said such arrangements, informally known as “swap mart," became increasingly frequent after the Thai army staged a coup in 2024 ousting an elected government. Military and military-backed rule lasted 10 years, until an elected civilian government led by Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin took office last year.

“The Srettha administration should launch an investigation into these allegations of harassment, surveillance and forced returns of asylum seekers and refugees in Thailand. It should investigate the disappearance of Thai anti-junta activists in other Southeast Asian countries," Elaine Pearson, director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia Division, told The Associated Press.

”I think there is an opportunity to end this practice and for the Srettha administration to show it is different from the previous military-led government," she added.

She noted that the Thai government is currently seeking a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council “and that comes with responsibilities to protect human rights.”

The report cited nine cases of Thai activists in Laos and Cambodia who were disappeared or killed in mysterious circumstances.

The mutilated bodies of two missing activists were found in late 2018 floating in the Mekong River. In 2020, a young Thai activist, Wanchalearm Satsaksit, was snatched off the street in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh and never heard from again.

Thai authorities have repeatedly denied any connection with such events.

Dr. Francesca Lessa, an associate professor in International Relations at University College London, said there were some parallels with the way autocratic leaders in Latin America made agreements to work together to eliminate political opponents on each other's soil in the late 1970s to 1980s.

“Whether they follow right or left ideologies, these autocratic governments consider opposition and dissent as constituting a threat to their survival in power and, thus, to be eliminated, whatever the means required,” Lessa told the AP.

Asked about the Human Rights Watch report, Thai Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nikorndej Balankura said that Thailand is committed to respecting and upholding humanitarian principles, including not forcing asylum-seekers and refugees to return to their home countries where they might face persecution or where their lives or freedom might be endangered.

Separately, the Thai Foreign Ministry announced Thursday that the country has concluded the ratification process for the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance, which will come into effect on June 13. Thailand has had its own law on the Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance since 2003, said the statement.

The ministry said that ratification means that Thailand will now be party to eight of the nine core international human rights treaties.

FILE - Thai rescuers cover a body on the shore of the Mekong River in Nakhon Phanom province northeast of Bangkok, Thailand, Thursday Dec. 27, 2018. DNA tests show that two bodies found washed up on the shore of Thailand's Mekong River are the corpses of anti-government activists, police said Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019, in what are feared to be political killings. A leading international human rights organization on Thursday, May 16, 2024, criticized the Thai government for helping its authoritarian neighbors by expelling political dissidents who fled to Thailand for safety and forcing them to return to their home countries. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - In this photo released by the government spokesman office, Thailand's Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, left, escorts Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Manet after they review an honor guard during a welcoming ceremony at the government house in Bangkok, Thailand, Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2024. (Government Spokesman Office via AP, File)

FILE - An activist holds a photo of Thai dissident Wanchalearm Satsaksit during a rally in front of Cambodian Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand, Monday, June 8, 2020. Wanchalearm, has been abducted in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, a human rights group said Friday, June 12, 2020 raising concern that a mysterious campaign targeting exiles for disappearance or death may have been revived. A leading international human rights organization on Thursday, May 16, 2024, criticized the Thai government for helping its authoritarian neighbors by expelling political dissidents who fled to Thailand for safety and forcing them to return to their home countries. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit), File)

FILE - Thai rescuers cover a body on the shore of the Mekong River in Nakhon Phanom province northeast of Bangkok, Thailand, Thursday Dec. 27, 2018. DNA tests show that two bodies found washed up on the shore of Thailand's Mekong River are the corpses of anti-government activists, police said Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019, in what are feared to be political killings. A leading international human rights organization on Thursday, May 16, 2024, criticized the Thai government for helping its authoritarian neighbors by expelling political dissidents who fled to Thailand for safety and forcing them to return to their home countries. (AP Photo, File)