Refugees

The Karen refugees in Thailand could be facing a new situation before we even know of it! Over the past years foreign donors and NGOs have chosen to abandon the border area and direct their support and aid through Rangoon via government-controlled agencies. The thinking is that when they have chosen to “engage” with President Thein Sein´s government they agree…

Women from the largest refugee camp in Thailand’s express their concerns and dreams as the world marks international women’s day. Naw Kaw, 44, a mother of three and a Karen refugee, sits down, shielding her face from the midday sun. She has been in Mae La refugee camp for two decades. She fled Burma after being used by the Burma…

The Mae Fah Luang Foundation has begun conducting surveys at Mae Ra Moe [Mae Rama Luang] and Mae La Oon refugee camps in Mae Hong Song province to gauge resident opinions on where they hope to live in the future. More than 70 MFLF-trained refugees started gathering data on February 3 as part of a month-long project to assess how…

Despite ceasefires between armed ethnic groups and the government’s military, many people from Burma are continuing to cross the border into Thailand in order to seek health care that is inaccessible or unaffordable in their own country. This has created a population of ‘medical refugees’, a phenomenon that has largely been ignored in the course of current discussions regarding Burma’s…

The building of shelters to replace those destroyed by a fire last week in Umpeim Mai Refugee Camp, Tak Province, is being delayed by a lack of building materials, claims a camp official. Saw Wah Htee, the chairperson of Umpiem Mai refugee camp, explained that a lack of basic building materials was causing the delay. “Currently, we can’t build the…

An aid worker has confirmed to Karen News that a fire broke out at Umpiem Mai Refugee Camp, Tak Province, today, burning 11 houses. A further 28 houses had their roofing removed to stop the fire from spreading. The aid worker said no one was injured. “The fire happened to occur when there was a camp meeting with NGO’s, The…

Refugees on the Thai Burma border are furious over what they perceive as ‘bias’ in the United Nations High Commission for Refugees resettlement program. Refugees from Nu Poe Camp, based in Thailand’s Tak’s province, on the Thai-Burma border, marched in protest, claiming that there was discrimination in UNHCR’s third country resettlement program. Around 150 refugees took place in the January…

In what is bad news for the 130,000 refugees living on the Thai Burma border, the Thailand’s Meteorological Department has forecast that the country’s cold weather is to continue into late January. The deputy director of Thailand’s Department of Disease Control, Mr Oparg Karankawinpong, confirmed on Thursday for reporters, that as many as 63 people in 24 provinces have died…

The Border Consortium, which delivers aid to the refugee camps on the Thai-Burma border that are home to around 130,000 refugees, has clarified its policy on rice ration cuts to Karen News and denied that the cuts are intended to encourage the return of refugees to Burma. The Border Consortium said that rice cuts would occur in seven out of…

Naw K‘nyaw Paw, the secretary of the Karen Womens Organisation’s told Karen News that reduced funding by the international community for refugees on the Thai Burma border is causing hardship. “Reduction of funding to the nine refugee camps along the Thai-Burma border has resulted in a reduction of services in education and health care and most importantly in their food.”…