[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index ][Thread Index ]

Special Posting: Forced Repatriatio



Subject: Special Posting: Forced Repatriation Threatened

New Arrivals at Huay Kaloke Camp Threatened with Forced Repatriation

BurmaNet (Feb. 29) -- On Thursday, January 28 the Thai authorities entered
Huay Kaloke (also known as Wangka) refugee camp near Mae Sot and announced
that they would start the process of counting the refugees in the camp.
They started by asking the camp authorities to gather the non-registered
newly arrived refugees in the church.  When that group of 808 new arrivals
was gathered, the soldiers started asking lots of questions, and were
especially antagonistic toward the Burman refugees.  (The majority of Huay
Kaloke refugees are ethnic Karen.)
 
Today, the new arrivals were once again asked to gather in the church by
the Thai area chief, army, and the border task force #34. As the refugees
came together, six 10-wheel army trucks converged on the site and it became
clear that the Thai authorities intended to repatriate these newly arrived
refugees, despite the dry-season offensive by the SPDC that forced many of
them to flee in the first place. 

With the Thai trucks at the ready, Non-Governmental Organizations and
representatives of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) arrived at the camp and appealed to the Thai authorities not to
send the refugees back to Burma.  The advocates for the refugees urged the
Thais to at least wait to allow UNHCR to interview the new arrivals and
determine if they are legitimate refugees, stating they would need at least
a week to complete the process.  The discussion ended with the Thai
authorities leaving the camp but not committing to calling off the forced
repatriation.  The situation remains in limbo, and NGO's and UNHCR will be
monitoring the situation over the weekend.

Huey Kaloke is the camp that was burned by Burmese troops in 1997 and 1998.
 Because of the security problems that arise from being so close to the
Burmese border, the large size of the camp, and the dryness of the land on
which the camp is located the Thais planned to relocate the camp further
from the border after the last invasion in February, 1998.  Because of the
impending move, refugees have been allowed to receive only limited supplies
for temporary shelters.  Such uncertainty has only added to their sense of
liminality and insecurity. The plan to move the camp, now a year later, has
not materialized and the refugees have been informed that it will be
another 6 months to a year before they are moved to a safer location.
Meanwhile, they remain under serious threat of Burmese army attacks.  Many
refugees sleep in the fields at night rather than in their homes because
they are so afraid of an attack. Such a living situation is hardly a pull
factor, as the Thai authorities fear the camps have (or will) become. The
new arrivals would choose to stay under such conditions rather than face
repatriation, an indication of the harshness of the push factor that forced
their departure from Burma.