Repatriation

A paper released last week by Burma Link and Burma Partnership claims the voices of refugees are ignored in Burma’s reforms. The joint paper, Voices of Refugees – Situation of Burma’s Refugees Along the Thailand-Burma Border, urges all the organisations responsible for refugees welfare to include them in the “planning and preparedness of their eventual return” to Burma. The joint…

A delegation, advocating on behalf of refugees and displaced people from Burma took their cause to Britian’s Parliament in an attempt to highlight the affects of funding cuts on services to people along the Thai Burma. “As refugees, we are under tremendous pressure in the camps. There have been many reductions in services including cuts to healthcare, education, shelter, and…

Media reports this week that talks between the Burma and the Thai government’s focused on repatriation of refugees sent fear and rumours through the nine refugee camps on the border between the two countries. Reports in the Thai English language media got it wrong, according to a spokesperson for the Committee of Internally Displaced People (CIDKP). Saw Steve, chairperson of…

Twenty-year old Hla Ko* has an easy smile, a cool haircut and the manic energy of a young man with few ties. He studies medicine but adores politics. He has an opinion about everything but isn’t too sure about anything. The church is an anchor, but hanging out and flirting with his many female friends is how he spends a…

Mr. Iain Hall, the senior field coordinator for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees based in the Thai border town of Mae Sot gave an exclusive interview to Karen News. In the exclusive interview, Mr Hall covers a wide range of issues affecting refugees including repatriation, international humanitarian guidelines, the Burmese government’s responsibilities to protect its citizens and the…

When Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha announced on July 11 that the Thai refugee camps on the Thai-Myanmar border would be emptied, many wondered if there really is new resolve by the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) to repatriate the 130,000 Myanmar refugees who have been living in Thailand for many years. Gen Prayuth cited national security as the reason…

Following intense media speculation, Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, released a media statement on Thursday 17 July in an attempt to cool speculation that the refugee camps on the Thai Burma border were about to be closed and residents sent back to Burma. The MFA’s press release highlighted four main points and underlined that a recent meeting between Thailand and…

Thailand’s National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), has reached an agreement with the commander-in-chief of Burma’s military to repatriate the 120,000 refugees on the Thai Burma border. The agreement has alarmed human rights experts and has increased refugees concerns, with uncertainty as to exactly when and where the refugees will go and how their safety can be guaranteed. Head…

Mu Mu, 28, stirs thin soup inside her small, two-roomed bamboo house on the Thai-Burma border, and speaks of the day the Burma Army soldiers came to her village a more than a decade ago. “The soldiers used us as [forced] porters. They would come to our village, Mae Ta Waw, and arrest men and women. They kept coming back…

A host of international based Burma human rights advocacy organisations have voiced grave concern that refugees on the Thai-Burma border are being forced to return to Burma prematurely because of deep cuts in international aid. In a joint statement the European Burma Network expressed concern that refugees from Burma residing in Thailand, were being “pressured” to return to Burma prematurely…