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

5/11/99:FORCED-RETURNEES--URGENT LE



POSTED SUN 7 NOV 99, 6:00AM

URGENT ACTION REGARDING FORCED RETURNEES FROM THAILAND
******************************************************
[To all our friends on Internet: Please help write urgent letter/fax
regarding with forced returnees from Thailand to Mary Robinson, UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights, and other UN officials. Please marks 
"For urgent action" in order to the UN Asia-Desk to take appropriate
response. Letter to your home government may also be helpful. Provided
below, some facsimile numbers &addresses.] 


Attention:   Mr Karim Ghezraoui, Asia-Desk (+41-22-917-0092) 
             Office of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. 

  Dr U Ne Oo
  18 Shannon Place
  Adelaide SA 5000
  Australia.

5th November 1999. 

To: 
  Mary Robinson 
  High Commissioner for Human Rights 
  Palias des Nations 
  8-14, Avenue de la Paix 
  CH-1211 Geneva, Switzerland. 

Dear High Commissioner: 

  re: Situation of Forced Returnees to Myanmar

I  like to draw the attention of High Commissioners for Human Rights as
well as High Commissioner for Refugees regarding with the plight of
Burmese illegal migrants workers who recently were forced to leave
Thailand. On 2nd November, the Thai authorities have executed a plan for
mass repatriation of Burmese illegal workers. Because of recent border
closure between Thailand and Burma, the Burmese troops are threatening
to shoot those returnees. The Thai authorities then reportedly brought
these Burmese workers to another border crossing point at which unmanned
by Burmese troops. It also reported that the Thai authorities, in recent
weeks,  have been secretly repatriating thousands of workers through
unguarded border crossings. 
  
I am very concerned about the safety of those illegal Burmese workers
who are forced to cross back into Burma through an unfamiliar terrains. 
It is believed that there have been land-mines laid throughout
Thailand-Burma border by Burmese army as well as rebel groups.
Furthermore, these workers who were secretly forced to enter Burma may
have to cross the free-fire zones, in which anyone being found are
considered as rebel by the Burmese army. 

 In addition to these immediate dangers, the returnees are likely to be
subjected  to various human rights abuses such as forced labour and
forced relocation in longer term. These migrant workers normally come
from rural villages that are close to Thailand. The villages in these
border areas are normally subjected to Burmese army's intensive
counter-insurgency operations. The root causes for the displacement of
these illegal migrant workers are very much similar to that of the
refugees'. The refoulement of refugees may have also occur because of
the Thai authorities are indiscriminately deporting those people without
adequate screening procedures. 
  
The Thai authorities' current practice of unscreened and unmonitored
repatriation of illegal migrant workers to Burma, therefore, is
tantamount to torture. Once in Burma, these forced returnees will be
subjected to physical dangers that are of life threatening in 
nature.[Thailand is not a signatory to the International Refugee
Conventions as well as the UN Convention Against Torture, Inhuman or
Degrading Treatment or Punishment, however.] 
  
I therefore appeal the High Commissioners, United Nations agencies and
international community to make an urgent interventions regarding
following matters: 
  

--     The United Nations and international community appeal Royal Thai
Government to immediately  stop current program of mass repatriation of
illegal workers; 

--     The Office of UNHCR in Bangkok to provide screening of illegal
migrant workers, i.e. those people who have fear of  persecution by
Burmese government upon return should not be repatriated; 

--     The United Nations High Commission for Refugees to assist the
humanitarian needs of those illegal migrant workers while they are being
held in temporary holding centers; 

--     The UNHCR and International Committee of the Red Cross to ensure
those migrant workers who returned to Burma not being subjected to
various forms of human rights abuses, such as forced portering and
forced labour; 

--     The Royal Thai Government should be encouraged to raise the
issues of displaced people from Burma for the consideration of the 54th
Session of United Nations General Assembly. 

In closing, I thank High Commissioner for Human Rights for your kind
attention to this matter. 

Yours respectfully and sincerely 
(Sd. U Ne Oo) 

Copy to: 
1. Ms Sadako Ogata, UN High Commissioner for Refugees. 
   (Send a copy to Mr Johanshah Assadi, Representative of UNHCR in
Bangkok, FAX: (+66-2)-280-0555)
2. Hon. Rajsoomer Lallah, Special Rapporteur for Human Rights on Burma. 
3. US Department of State, Bureau of Democracy Human rights and Labor. 
   [US Dept of Labor, Room 7802, 2201 C-Street NW, Washington DC 20520,
USA Fax:(+1-202)647-9515]
4. Kofi Annan, The Secretary-General of the United Nations. 
   [c/- Mr Alvaro de Soto, Assist-Secretary-General, UN Dept of
Political Affairs, New York N.Y. 10017, USA FAX: (+1-212)963-1395]

----------------------------------------------
Burmese Troops threaten to shoot forced  returnee  migrants. 

BANGKOK, Nov 2 AP- Burmese troops threatened to shoot a batch of
migrants sent back home by Thai authorities today at the start of a
planned mass repatriation of illegal workers, Thai officials said. 

 Thai authorities then brought the 200 Burmese migrants to another point
on the Moei river border between the two countries that was not being
manned by Yangon's troops and sent them into Burma. 

 The long  border was closed by Burma a month ago in retaliation for
Thailand allowing student militants, who stormed the Burmese embassy in
Bangkok on October 1, go free. 

 Relations between the two countries are at their lowest point in years. 

 The border closure complicated Thai plans to send back hundreds of
thousands of migrant workers starting this week in an effort to cap the
number of foreign labourers from its poor neighbours -- Burma, Cambodia
and Laos. 

 "(Burma) knows well Thailand starts expelling illegal workers this
month. No matter what, we will send them all back home," said Police
Colonel Preecha Suwansorn, chief of immigration police in Mae Sot, Tak
province, 370 kilometres north-west of Bangkok. 

 The Thais have been sending home thousands of workers secretly at
unguarded crossings in recent weeks. 

 But in the initial repatriation undertaken openly today, the three big
passenger boats loaded with about 200 migrants had to come back across
the river to Thailand. 

 Preecha told reporters that armed Burmese soldiers had threatened to
shoot anyone who stepped off the craft and onto their river bank, near
the Burma border town of Myawaddy, which lies opposite Mae Sot. 

 In Burma, a government spokesman, on customary condition of anonymity,
said that immigration issues "should be discussed at the regular border
meetings where government officials from both sides meet". 

 There are about 1 million foreign workers in Thailand, mostly from
Burma. Most stay illegally. Human rights groups say many have fled
oppression by Burma's military government. 

 Two years ago, Thailand allowed employers in 37 provinces to hire
migrants to work in 18 business sectors, including rubber plantations,
rice mills, factories, fisheries and construction. 

 But in a bid to ease unemployment among Thais during the country's
economic crisis, Bangkok has now set a limit of 87,000 effective from
tomorrow, on the number of foreign workers from Burma, Laos and
Cambodia. 

 In tak province alone, there are an estimated 50,000 Burma workers in
factories and about 30,000 more employed in agriculture and services. 

 To the dismay of local businessmen in the province who can hire migrant
workers for a fraction of the cost of Thais, only a few thousand will be
allowed to work inside the province under the new regulation. 

 Authorities in the province are now gearing up for a mass repatriation.
A holding center for thousands of illegal workers they plan to round up
from this week has been set up in Mae Sot. 

 At least 100 immigration police have been sent to the province from
Bangkok to beef-up the local force, preparing to search more than 600
factories in Tak, said Police Major Cahtree Hipthong, deputy chief of
immigration police in Mae Sot. AP tk/rds 

Expelled Burmese workers  stuck in jungle 

BANGKOK,  Nov 3 Reuters -- Hundreds of Burmese worker expelled from
Thailand today are trapped in the jungle along the two countries' border
because Burmese troops will not let them go home, Thai officials said. 

 Thai immigration, police and soldiers ferried 250 Burmese worker 
across the border to Myawadi from the Thai town of Mae Sot today in the
first of what are expected to be dozens of operations to get rid of
illegal labourers, officials said. 

 But when the workers arrived in Burma, they were prevented from
crossing the jungle deeper into Burma by government troops who suspected
they might be dissidents. 

 "Burmese soldiers reasoned that anti-government groups might be among
the returnees, so prevented them going deeper into the country," a Thai
immigration spokesman told Reuters. 

The Thai Cabinet rejected yesterday an appeal from Thai employers and
entrepreneurs to let more than 600,000 illegal Burmese workers stay in
the country. "The authorities concerned will begin to round up the
illegal workers and send them back as soon as possible," Thai Labour
Minister Wut Sukosol told reporters on today. 

 Thailand, hit hard by its worst economic crisis for the past two years,
used to host about one million Burmese workers until late last year when
it repatriated about 300,000 of them. 

 The deadline for a decision on the future of most of the remaining
600,000 illegal workers, on whose behalf employers had appealed, is
November 4. The illegal workers were allowed to remain as cheap labour
in jobs rejected by Thais in 18 sectors, mainly in the farm and fishery
industries in 37 of 76 provinces in the country. 

 Thai authorities began rounding up illegal workers today and were
expected to keep most of them in holding centres until the main crossing
along 2,400 kilometre commmon border were reopened by Burma. 

 Burma's military government angrily shut its border with Thailand on
October 1 after five armed Burmese dissident students siezed Rangoon's
embassy in Bangkok and held 89 hostages for 25 hours. 

 The embassy attackers later escaped in a helicopter taking a Thai
deputy minister as guarantor for their safe passage into the jungles
along the Thai-Burma border. 

 The Thai action on the Burmese worker is bound to have repercussions on
its cottage, agricultural and fisheries industries, especially along the
border where employers are dependent on cheap labour. 

 Thai authorities along the border in Rangnong, Chaing Rai and Mae Hong
Son provinces faced similar problems today with Burmese soldiers
preventing Burmese returnees from moving into the country, border
sources said. 

 But Thailand's chief police officer said the operation to expel the
illegal workers would continue. "Illegal workers will be rounded up from
tomorrow and if the authorities of some neighbouring countries (Burma)
are not in favour of the repatriation, these people will be confined to
a certain location until the repatriation is possible," Thai national
police chief Pracha Promnok told reporters.
REUTERS ts. 

-- 
HTTP://www.physics.adelaide.edu.au/~uneoo
EMAILS: drunoo@xxxxxxxxxxxx, uneoo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
POSTMAIL: Dr U Ne Oo, 18 Shannon Place, Adelaide SA 5000, AUSTRALIA
[http://freeburma.org/[http://www.angelfire.com/al/homepageas/index.htm]
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =