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AFP-Thousands of Myanmar refugees t



Thousands of Myanmar refugees to be relocated in Thailand 

Agence France Presse, 
Bangkok, Aug 19 

   Thailand will next week begin moving thousands of Myanmar refugees
deeper inside its territory in a bid to reduce the risk of cross-border
raids by junta-backed guerrilla forces, refugee workers said Thursday. 

The schedule for relocating refugees in Tak province on the Myanmar border
was agreed on Monday by Thai authorities and the United Nations High
Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). 

"It's planned to start on Monday next week," one refugee official told AFP.
He said some 15,000 refugees from Huay Kalok and Mawkier camps would be
moved about 13 kilometers (eight miles) further inside Thai territory in a
process that would take several weeks. 

"The idea is to have them in a safer location, and to provide more space,
and the water situation is better," he said. 

"Both camps have had problems with security. In the past few years there
have been a number of attacks by pro-Yangon Karen renegades." 

Thailand hosts some 100,000 Myanmar refugees, mainly of Karen and Karenni
origins, who have fled the suppression of ethnic insurgencies in
military-run Myanmar since 1984. 

Last year, several Karen refugees were killed and thousands were made
homeless when guerrilla forces backed by the junta raided camps on Thai
territory. 

Thailand's cash-strapped government invited the UNHCR last year to play an
expanded role in administering the camps. 

Human Rights Watch has accused the Thai government and the UNHCR of leaving
thousands of villagers in danger along the border with Myanmar. 

The group said the UNHCR had been "unnecessarily weak in its efforts to
challenge the Thai policies that undermine refugee protection." 

Myanmar's junta is blamed for widespread human rights abuses including the
torture and rape of civilians, particularly supporters of ethnic rebel
groups along its eastern border with Thailand. 

The Karen National Union is one of the last remaining ethnic guerrilla
forces maintaining a struggle for independence from Yangon. 

Thailand refers to the asylum seekers as "displaced persons," avoiding the
term "refugees", and says they will be forced to return home as soon as it
is considered safe. 
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