Thai Premier Praised For Promising Improvements For Burmese Refugees

[Jai Dee]

Thai Premier Praised for Promising Improvements for Refugees

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has praised Thailand’s new government for pledging to improve the living conditions of thousands of Burmese refugees in camps along the country’s border with Burma.

UNHCR spokesperson Jennifer Pagonis said at a press conference in Geneva on Tuesday that the agency is encouraged by Thai Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont’s promise to improve the welfare of 140,000 mostly ethnic Karen refugees from Burma.

“We were pleased that he named as his third priority improving the living conditions and standards in the refugee camps, which are run by [the] Thai government and are home to refugees from Myanmar, formerly known as Burma,” Pagonis said. Surayud’s government has said its first priority is to achieve political stability in Thailand’s restive south and to resolve the insurgency there.

Last week, Surayud met representatives of UN agencies in Bangkok and promised an improvement of standards in the nine refugee camps run by the Thai government. According to the UNHCR, Surayud’s government is to issue refugees with identity cards allowing them to move freely outside the camps and to work legally.

“These steps would be in line with accepted standards and would also meet the genuine needs of Thailand’s growing economy for a bigger workforce,” Pagonis said.

Officials of the Karen Refugee Committee welcomed the reported developments, but said they had not yet officially been informed.

Improvements for refugees had been discussed with the previous Thai government during a visit to Thailand in August by UN representative Antonio Guterres. During his four-day stay in Thailand, Guterres visited the Tham Hin refugee camp together with US Assistant Secretary of State for Refugees and Migration, Ellen Sauerbrey.

Source: Irrawaddy News - 19 October 2006

[farangsay]

Excellent , praise to the man.

There's falangs complaining about Thai attitudes towards them

but they should try being Burmese for a couple of days.

Remember post-tsunami stories of Burmese (ex) hotel employees

hiding in the hils around Khao Lak , afraid to claim the bodies of

their friends/relatives in case they were shipped back to Myanmar.