‘If I had known, I wouldn’t have returned to Myanmar’: Shortcomings in Refugee Repatriation and Reintegration

Topic: 

Development project, Food Security/Right to livelihood, Indiscriminate firing of mortars / small arms, Injury, Internally Displaced Persons, Land Confiscation, Refugees, Right to education, Right to health

Description: 

""In the camp, food rations were reduced, and we no longer received bamboo or wood to fix our homes. We faced challenges for our family livelihoods and we had to sneak out of the camp to go collect wood and bamboo. This is why I decided to return to Myanmar.” Naw Y---, a recently repatriated refugee Between February 20th and 23rd 2019, more than 500 men, women and children from five refugee camps, including Karenni refugee camps, in Thailand, returned to Myanmar.[1] This third refugee repatriation process was facilitated by the Thai and Myanmar governments, the UNHCR, and other humanitarian aid organisations. To shed light on this process and understand how resettled refugees are adjusting to their new lives, KHRG conducted interviews with 13 repatriated refugees in Mae La Way Ler Moo (Mae La Hta)[2] and Lay Hpa Htaw[3] resettlement sites in March and April 2019. These refugees – six men and seven women – came from Nu Poe, Ban Don Yang (Thaw Pa) and Mae La (Beh Klaw) refugee camps. KHRG also interviewed three local leaders responsible for the resettlement sites from the Karen National Union (KNU) and the KNU/KNLA Peace Council (KNU/KNLA-PC). The testimonies of the recently repatriated refugees reveal a stark reality. The journey to their new homes was spent cramped in the back of dusty trucks, without enough food or water. A lack of basic social services, agricultural lands and income-generating opportunities awaited them on their arrival to resettlement sites. Resettled refugees are also concerned by the close proximity of Tatmadaw army camps to their new homes, and by the fact that the land surrounding resettlement sites is contaminated by unexploded ordnances (UXOs)..."

Source/publisher: 

Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)

Date of Publication: 

2019-06-20

Date of entry: 

2019-07-21

Grouping: 

  • Individual Documents

Category: 

Geographic coverage: 

    • Karen State

Countries: 

Myanmar

Language: 

English

Local URL: 

Format: 

pdf

Size: 

715.01 KB

Resource Type: 

text

Text quality: 

    • Good

Alternate URLs: