UNHCR starts screening of refugees entitled to family reunion
Refugees at Mae La Refugee camp on the Thai Burma border with relatives resettled I third countries are about to be screened by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Thailand to see if they are eligible to be resettled.
It is estimated that there are as many as 52,000 people living at the Mae La refugee camp that is located in the Tha Song Yang District of Thailand’s Tak Province. Many refugees have family member who have been resettled to a third country.
A Mae La refugee camp committee member, Naw Tay Tay, confirmed for Karen News that UNHCR staff are collecting information and names of refugees of families that have member who have been resettled to a third country.
“The process is to support family reunions. The UNHCR will start the process for separated couple in the second stage of the process.”
UNHCR’s screening process will include refugees who are under Thailand’s Provincial Admissions Board (PAB) and refugees who hold ration documents, but have yet to be officially registered by UNHCR or the Thai government.
Refugee from Mae La camp have been resettled to third countries since 2006 – US, Australia, Canada, England, Norway, Sweden, Netherlands, Finland, New Zealand, Belgium and Japan.
Mae La refugee camp founded in 1984 on the Thai-Burma border is home to, as many as 52,000 refugees from Burma according to the Karen Refugee Committee.
