Thai dissident musicians celebrate getting French haven

Members of a Thai folk music group who feared for their lives because of their fiercely antiestablishment songs are celebrating being admitted to France to seek refugee status.

The band Faiyen fled to Thailand’s neighbor Laos after a military government took power in Bangkok in 2014. Dozens of dissidents, some fearing arrest under a law mandating prison terms for criticism of the country’s monarchy, fled to Laos and Cambodia.

Several dissidents who fled to Laos were killed or disappeared, spreading fear they had been targeted by Thai royalists.

Faiyen said they received constant death threats and issued urgent pleas for help to move to a safer refuge.

They and their supporters said Tuesday they are now in Paris, and plan a protest at the Thai Embassy and a celebratory concert.