A Facebook live-streaming of the protest showed protestors destroying buildings and facilities belonging to the Thai camp commander as well as security checkpoints and entrance gates. A protester could be heard in the Facebook live-stream shouting; “We can’t afford to pay the 1,000 Baht travel permit cost,” suggesting anyone who wanted to leave the camp had to pay 1,000 Baht…
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Camp committee members said on October 5 2021, health workers at Umphiem Refugee Camp had tested positive with Covid-19. Further tests of those in contact with the positive cases found more than 400 people had been infected by the last week of November, 2021. Saw Ni Doh, assistant camp leader, told Karen News that more cases have been reported daily.…
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At the latest online ‘border-wide’ meeting held from August 24 to 26 by stakeholders and service providers to the refugee camps, including; UNHCR, INGO/NGO, refugee camp management committees and Karen Community Based Organizations, it was discussed to propose the Thai government find a way for refugee to have official permission to work in Thailand. Saw Pwe Say, secretary of the…
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Refugee camp residents said the rising price of food items and shortages of food supplies in the camps because of COVID-19 restrictions is causing problems. Refugees told Karen News their situation will get more difficult the longer the epidemic continues and if travel restrictions remain. Naw Keh Paw, a resident of Umphiem Refugee camp said that since the delay of…
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Naw Emly, a camp committee member told Karen News that as the symptoms are not severe, patients are not being transferred to the nearby Thai public hospital, but are being treated within the camp at a separate location set up as Covid-19 treatment centre. “There hasn’t been any deaths. The first confirmed case was on April 22. One of the…
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The political situation in Burma had offered some hope for the more than 90,000 refugees living in refugee camps along the Thai-Burma border to return to their homeland. Beginning in 2013, some refugees made the decision to return to Burma on their own, while others decided to go back through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) sponsored ‘Voluntary…
Read More » The patient is currently only identified by health workers as a 48-year male with four family members in Umpheim Mai refugee camp. The man returned to the camp on November 4 without informing related camp officials or health workers. He turned up at the camp’s health facility on November 19 with symptoms and the resulting Covid-19 tests proved to be…
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Hundreds of camp residents from the Tham Hin refugee camp gathered to demand fair treatment by camp officials toward refugees after travel in and out of the camps were restricted. Refugees accused of breaking the tightened restrictions were punished by camp officials, including corporal punishment and fines. A Tham Hin camp resident spoke to Karen News (with the condition of…
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Earlier this July, 157 refugees more from camps along the Thai-Burma border returned to Burma. This was the fourth group officially to voluntarily return facilitated by UNHCR and government officials from Burma and Thailand. As with previous returnees, the new group went to the Kyauk Lone Gyi reception center located in the Burma border town Myawaddy and welcomed by government…
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On World Refugee Day, 2019, the Karen Peace Support Network (KPSN) issued a statement calling on the European Union, United Kingdom and other donors to support refugees and IDPs in eastern Burma and Thailand. With the peace building process stalled and without any guaranteed political solutions, it is impossible for the refugees and displaced people to return to their original…
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