Myanmar refugees thank Palau

Myanmar refugees thank Palau

KOROR (Palau Horizon) — Palau has become a sanctuary to 11 Burmese who fled Myanmar to avoid the persecution of its military government.

The refugees are thankful to this island nation for giving them a temporary home while they await another country to provide them political asylum. Seven of the 11 Burmese live in Ngaraard in a farm owned by Sen. Joel Toribiong, while the rest are staying at another house in the same village.The 11 arrived here in February, after first seeking refuge in Manila, the Philippines. But their money ran out and they had to make do with the $60 a month provided to each of them by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.

Toribiong offered to temporarily host and sponsor the Burmese who are seeking political asylum either in Australia or the United States. U Pyianananda, a monk who left Myanmar in 2007 after an anti-government uprising, said they want to leave Palau to continue fighting for freedom for their nation, which has been ruled by military dictators since 1962. Pyianananda said they are grateful for Toribiong’s good heart.

“But this is not my home, not my country and not my monastery,” Pyianananda said. H Tien Lien said they are thankful for Palau’s hospitality. Seven of them live in Toribiong’s farmhouse with neither electricity nor running water. 

A stream within the farm is their shower area.  Toribiong regularly sends them supplies, but they are also proud of what they have done in the farm in four months.  “If we do not plant, we do not have enough food,” Pyianananda said. “Life is hard but we will continue to live,” Lien said. 
UNCHR representatives visited Palau recently and told the Burmese that they meet international refugee status.

The processing of their documents, however, will take several months. Palau is also the temporary home for six former Guantanamo detainees — ethnic Uighurs from China who are looking for another country that can provide them a permanent home.

88 people caught for human trafficking

88 people caught for human trafficking, Dewan Rakyat told

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 30

(Bernama) —Since the Anti-Human Trafficking Act 2007 came into force in February 2008, 88 individuals were caught, 39 were charged in court for offences related to the scourge resulting in five convictions, said Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein. 

He said the authorities had also conducted probes on allegations of government employees involved in human trafficking of Myanmar refugees.

“So far one case is being prosecuted in regard to this issue,” he said in his written reply to a question from Lim Lip Eng (DAP-Segambut) in the Dewan Rakyat today.

He added that the government viewed human trafficking seriously and had taken various steps besides introducing the act to combat the scourge.

These included the setting up of an Anti-Human Trafficking Council, drawing up of a five-year strategic action plan on the matter and expediting investigations where foreigners were involved in crimes unless it was serious crimes like murder or drug trafficking.

The government also had forged cooperation with regional and international agencies to tackle human trafficking more effectively, especially in regard to Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, said Hishammuddin, adding that the Attorney-General’s Chambers had also set up a legal committee to pore through the Act so that any ambiguties in it could be amended.

Meanwhile, Deputy Science, Technology and Innovations Minister Fadillah Yusof said generally, employees at the Malaysian Nuclear Agency were not given any special guarantees or financial incentives besides those normally provided to civil servants.

However, he said certain employees at the agency classified as radiation workers were eligible for extra 14 days annual leave.

“Those handling research work at the reactor there are also given a special allowance of RM150 a month as they had to undergo special training to be qualified to do this work,” he said when replying to a question from Mohsin Fadzli Samsuri (PKR-Bagan Serai), who wanted to know about the welfare of the workers at the agency.

Fadillah added that stringent health checks were also conducted at regular intervals to ensure workers at the agency were not exposed to radiation.

Japan to allow resettlement of Burmese refugees

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) - Parliamentarians from several countries expressed concern about the plight of refugees from North Korea and Burma, while a Japanese MP said that Japan will start selecting refugees from Burma to resettle from early 2010.

On Saturday, the International Parliamentarians' Coalition for North Korean Refugees and Human Rights (IPCNKR) expressed concerned about refugees from Burma, where they share a similar plight with North Korean refugees.

The view was expressed in a press conference after the annual General Assembly of IPCNKR held in Chiang Mai, Thailand from November 27 to 29, 2009.

Beginning with its 2003 founding General Meeting in Seoul, IPCNKR currently consists of 200 parliamentarians from 62 nations.

Nakagawa Masaharu, Japan’s Member of the House of Representatives, and Senior Vice Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, who is also the standing Co-Chairman of IPCNKR, talked in his welcome speech about the meeting which was organized in Thailand because the country shares a border with Burma - a country with a military junta that can be ranked alongside North Korea.

“It is a fact that gross violations of human rights and persecution of minorities are a serious issue in this country as well. We [IPCNKR] would like to take this opportunity to issue a heartfelt appeal for the restoration of human rights in Myanmar,” he noted.

The meeting focussed on the need to promote and protect the human rights of North Korean refugees in keeping with the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It also expected parliamentarian’s participation in efforts to improve the human rights situation in North Korea as well as around the globe.

Refugees from North Korea who flee to escape starvation and/or oppression by their government, cross into China, where some remain and some make their way to South Korea, the United States, Japan, or other countries. A number cross to Lao and Thailand though the northern border in Chiang Rai Province.

Thailand is widely recognized as the number two destination (the first is China) into which North Korean refugees flee from their homeland. Many of them, who arrive in Thailand, are resettled in South Korea. According to the Thai Immigration Office, about 1,000 North Korean defectors entered Thailand in 2007. Later statistics have not been released, but estimates place the 2008 total at around 1,500.

In addition, Nakagawa told the Mizzima that the resettlement programme of refugees from Burma to Japan will start in early 2010, while the actual programme to prepare the refugees to live in Japan could begin around July.

“The first group of refugees to be resettled is around 30 to 40 people. The programme will be handled in phases to see the progress,” he added.

By the end of (2010), Japan has decided to accept a group of Burmese refugees in camps along the Thai-Burma border. The decision makes Japan the first Asian country to accept Burmese refugees.

Japan now becomes the first Asian country to accept Burmese refugees, who have earlier been resettled in United States, Canada, Australia and European countries, through the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR. Besides, it is also a sign of a policy shift in Japan, which rarely allows refugees to be resettled in their country.

Recently, Japan’s Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama called on the UNHCR to support Japan's plan to accept Burma refugees from fiscal 2010, while he was meeting U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres.

At the meeting in the Prime Minister's office, Guterres responded that Japan's foreign policy and the UNHCR's support are heading towards the same goal and that Japan expects continued support from the agency. The government will examine the outcome of the programme after three years and decide whether to continue.

Home Ministry probes human trafficking ring

Source: http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News

(Reports by V. Vasudevan, Sajahan Waheed and Lydia Gomez, 01/12/2009)

ONE government officer has been taken to court for trafficking in Myanmar refugees, Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said yesterday. He said the ministry is investigating the issue which has been cited as one of the main reasons for Malaysia being blacklisted by the US State Department in its Trafficking in Persons Report this year. Malaysia and 16 other countries were placed on Tier 3 of the report which analysed efforts taken to combat human trafficking in 173 countries.

In a written reply to Lim Lip Eng (DAP-Segambut), Hishammuddin said the government officer was among the 39 human trafficking cases prosecuted so far.

He said since the Anti-Human Trafficking Act was enforced in February last year, 88 people have been arrested and five were charged and convicted. Other efforts to tackle the problem include a five-year National Anti-Human Trafficking Strategic Action Plan; setting up more shelters for victims, especially in Sabah and Sarawak, including one shelter for male victims; working with Australia, United States and the Netherlands to carry out awareness programmes for enforcement officers and improving the cooperation network in neighbouring and sender countries. "The Myanmar refugee problem is not something that can be handled by Malaysia alone because this is a regional and international problem. "This issue has to be dealt with carefully by rectifying the root cause."

He said the Attorney-General's Chambers was reviewing the act to resolve any ambiguity and to study whether human smuggling should be included in the law.

Myanmar humanitarian worker granted refugee status

A woman who co-ordinated disaster relief work in Myanmar and helped monks flee Government crackdowns there has won refugee status in New Zealand.

The businesswoman from Yangon, who has not been named, took part in large-scale demonstrations and facilitated meetings between foreign activists and the pro-democracy opposition, including its leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The woman changed money on the black market to help monks during their protests in 2007 and so they could buy and transport food rations for victims of last year’s cyclone.

The Refugee Status Appeals Authority says it has no doubt that there is a real risk to the woman’s safety if she returns to Myanmar.

The authority also criticised the denial of legal aid for her appeal.

Chin Refugee Sentenced To 15-year Jail In Malaysia

Malaysian High Court Judge Abdul Alim Abdullah last Wednesday sentenced a Chin refugee to a 15-year imprisonment for killing his three housemates during their sleep in Malaysia.

Sui Hmung Lian, 38, told the Malaysian court that he was made to do the houseworks including cooking, and was taunted and bullied since he started working at an oil palm plantation in Kuala Klawang.

The 38-year-old, of Tlangpi village, Chin State, used a hoe and a machete to kill his three Chin fellows, Zam Hre, 32, Van Kam, 37, and Bu Lian, 22, on 30 May last year while they were asleep around 7pm after drinking bottles of beer.

It has been reportedly claimed that it was nothing else but the ‘overdrinking’ habit that had led to this kind of unnecessary ‘horrendous and tragic’ situation among the Chin refugees stranded in Malaysia.

And some has attributed this kind of act to the negative consequences of a ‘neglected and failed’ education system in military-ruined Burma where only 1.4% of GDP is spent on health and education.

Sui Hmung Lian’s 15-year sentence will run from the day of his arrest on 2 June, 2008.

In the other hand, most of Burmese refugees are suffering from Mental Health. They have to work long hour per day for little money under a lot of pressure of the owner or their Boss. They are looked down by the people wherever they go or are. Refugees are worried about family, food, money to spend and safety. There is no time to enjoy their lifetime in malaysia as a human. One can see the situation on the face when you see a refugee.

They may look the hell. Why ?  Why is he or she different from you ? There are lots of problems on their shoulders in their daily life. Not like you, they don't have time to enjoy their life and no time to smile. 

Chin Food Aid Concert In DC

Chin Food Aid Concert In Washington DC

In support of mautam-hit victims in Chin State, famous singers from Burma and India’s Mizoram State teamed up in their performances at Chin Food Aid Concert held in Washington DC, USA yesterday.

Well-known Burmese singers Yadana Oo and Mi Mi Win Phe, and Mizo singer Nutei joined Chin artists, Sung Tin Par, Dawt Hlei Hniang, Solomon Menrihai and Salai Tawna in the US capital, entertaining a thousand-odd strong audience.

Coordinator of Chin Food Aid Concerts in USA, Salai Elaisa Vahnie, who gave a rendering presentation on the food crisis, said: “We, the Chin, are a diverse society. Even so, today we have proved that we can work together to achieve the joint goals based on our common interest.”

The concert kicked off with an opening prayer by Rev. San No Thuam which was followed by a short speech from Pu Roland Maung on behalf of Chin Community in Washington DC and words of thanks and encouragement from Pu Lal Aung.

The audience clapped their hands, screamed with delight and sang along during the concert where a music band comprised of five very talented individuals including Salai Tuah Aung, Zen Lian, Tuk Tuk, Kawl Lian Hmung and their white friend drummer made the night livelier and more entertaining.

Reports confirmed that the mautam food crisis, which started in 2007 after the advent of a bamboo-and-rat-related disastrous natural phenomenon into Chin State in late 2006, is getting worse due to ‘unusual’ weather and swarms of locusts that destroy crops, especially in Southern areas of Chin State.

“Even though we are getting tired after a series of concerts held in the US, we will not stop because this is for our brothers and sisters who are suffering from mautam food crisis,” said the Chin artists, who have also performed voluntarily in Asia and Europe since 2008.

As part of global campaign against starvation in Burma’s Chin State, a series of ‘Chin Food Aid Concerts’ has been organised since late 2008 by Chin communities in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, UK, Germany, Denmark, Norway and USA.

The next Chin Food Aid Concert is scheduled to be held in Georgia, Atlanta on 5 December, 2009, which will then be followed by another in Florida in January, 2010.

Chin Food Aid Concert and CNF ( Chin National Front )


The so called Chin Food Aid Concert a cross the globe is organized by CHRO, the right wing of CNF, which is mainly controlled by Hakha/Thangtlang group. Therefore, all funds from the concert will not go to the people in Chin state, but will be used in the activities of CNF, the source points out today.


In summary, It means that the people who support the concert will be determined as the supporters of CNF, the terrorist organization in Chin State. Most people are also deeply concerning about the singers' way back to home if the military government learns that the concert is supporting CNF.

In Malaysia, Chin Refugees Committee or Chin Refugees Centre is mainly the right wing of CNF and mainly working for HAKHA & THANGTLAN as well.

Most of the time, they are using the Name "Chin" around the world but the benefit goes to the chin people of Hakha & Thangtlang Townships.

Actually, the chin is made up of several chin tribes such as Zo, Zomi, Mizo, Lai, Laimi, K'Cho, Asho, Kami and so on. It shows the name " Chin" is used for the Chin People Of Hakha & Thangtlan for their own benefit.

Rescued Sex Workers Found HIV-positive

Twelve of fifty-eight migrant sex workers rescued from a boat landing along the Burma coast in southern Thailand were found to be HIV-positive. Most are ethnic women from Mon State, Burma, said a social worker Ko Winn Paing based in Ranong, Thailand.

“They were sold for prostitution from the hands of human traffickers and were left behind after showing HIV symptoms. We later rescued them on November 24 from a boat landing and took them to the hospital.”

According to the social worker of Setana Shin Social Foundation, eight are Lao Shan, an ethnic people from Mon state, and the other four are Mon and Burman. The migrants do not want to go back to their home village and instead want to live on the border where they can receive medical treatment. The community isolates those who have HIV and traditionally look down on sex workers.

Burmese Women are vulnerable to HIV infection

Thousands of Burmese women and children are lured and forced into Thailand every year by human traffickers to work in the sex industry. These numbers are expected to increase due to continued political repression in the coming months and the downtown in the world economy. Burmese women, in particular ethnic women who face language barriers back home and in Thailand, make up the bulk of the domestic workers and are targets for sexual exploitation and violence. Depending on their age, beauty and virginity they are bartered or kidnapped to work in the sex brothels.

“These women contribute significantly back home, but poverty, human rights violations, and political repression committed by the Burmese government forces women to leave their villages to find work abroad in order to support themselves and their family” said a Mon community worker. Not only are they exploited and denied their rights as workers, but they face an onslaught in contracting the AIDS virus and other sexually transmitted diseases.

A recent report by the UN Development Fund on Asian women, HIV vulnerability of Migrant Women: From Asia to the Arab States, says a combination of excessive recruitment fees, poor wages, and poverty push migrants into a desperate situation.

The report highlighted the fact that reintegration programmes form the best defense for those suffering from AIDS and in helping the victims. Migrants with HIV who are deported back to Burma “can be devastating for [their] health, well-being and livelihoods of migrants and their families,” the report said. The idea of not being able to work abroad forces them into a vicious cycle “puts them at substantial risk of being trafficked” and over and over again.

Ajjay Chibber, the UNDP regional director for Asia, said the migrants, who suffer discrimination from the time they arrive, would become more marginalized once they contracted HIV.

“If they are found to be HIV positive, they risk deportation. Once returned to their home countries, they are unable to find work and face discrimination and social isolation,” he said.

According to the report, these countries should work to integrate their laws covering recruitment agencies, while putting in place “urgent reforms” in their labour laws to recognize domestic help as a formal profession.

Simultaneously, Asian countries should step up HIV awareness and prevention programmes during pre-departure orientation programmes for prospective migrants.

Initiatives should also be undertaken to also promote “safe and informed migration”, while embassy staff and those responsible for labour relations should be taught to be more sensitive to the plight of women, especially those who test positive for HIV.

Aid groups: Refugees ‘languishing in Malaysian camps’

Courtesy: Radio Australia

To Listen

As Australia steps up pressure on its Asian neighbours to reduce the number of people seeking to enter this country illegally by boat, the Malaysian government is under pressure to demonstrate its commitment to stemming the human tide. Many refugees from east Asia pass through Malaysia, especially people fleeing Burma, and the United States has listed that country as one of the worst offenders in the region for human trafficking and smuggling.

Presenter: Karen Percy, South East Asia correspondent

Speaker : Temme Lee, Suarem



PERCY: An estimated 100,000 refugees are thought to reside in Malaysia – the vast majority of them are Burmese. But there are also significant numbers of Sri Lankans and Afghanis. While many of them, especially those who are Muslim, would like to stay in Malaysia increasingly they are being forced out. Malaysia does not recognise refugees, even if the United Nations High Commission for Refugees has assessed them and given them supporting documentation. And so the authorities treat them as illegal immigrants, or worse hand them over to trafficking rings.

JOHN: (AFGHAN)

PERCY: This Afghani father of four tells us if he had money he would not spend one more minute in Malaysia. With his son translating, the 41-year old says he would put his family on a boat to Australia, even with the risk of perishing at sea. He’s heard other Afghani families have been allowed to settle in Australia but such a journey would cost him about $5,000 – money he just doesn’t have. John, as he wants us to call him, flew into Kuala Lumpur with his wife and sons two years ago. He’s originally from Afghanistan. His children were born in Iran. The family has converted to Christianity, and fear religious persecution if they were forced to return to Aghanistan.

JOHN: (AFGHAN)

PERCY: John tells us they are also treated poorly in Muslim-dominated Malaysia, scorned for going to church.

LEE: In Malaysia, conditions are really really tough.

PERCY: Temme Lee is with the Malaysian refugee advocacy group, Suarem.

LEE: For those who have lived here maybe from five to 10 years, they start to get really desperate because they get trapped in the same cycle of arrest, detention and often deportation as well. And they are subject to a lot of abuse by local authorities and also locals themselves here in Malaysia.

PERCY: John works illegally, living in constant fear of being found by the authorities, who demand bribes or detain the visitors. The family’s case is currently with the UNHCR. His 15-year son — who we’ll call Martin — talks of a grim life where refugees are even subjected to death threats.

MARTIN: My life is like the darkness. My life in Malaysia doesn’t have any light, you know.

PERCY: And what would you like for your life?

MARTIN: My wish is to be a doctor but now I cannot. I’d like to have, I’d like to study, I’d like to have… I’d like to have a good life, I’d like to be lucky. But in Malaysia we cannot. Also we cannot study.

PERCY: Martin used to have a job in a restaurant in Kuala Lumpur but his boss told him he had to stand during the whole 12-hours of his shift. He left rather than complain and risk being reported to the authorities. Cases like this are prevalent in Malaysia. Employers seem to have few qualms about taking advantage of the poor citizens of neighbouring countries. Rohingyas from Burma are paid a pittance to work on the fishing boats. Domestic workers from the Philippines and Indonesia who routinely abused physically and mentally. Refugees from Malaysia choose to go to Australia in part because of proximity but more importantly, when travelling by boat, there is no need for paperwork — unlike arriving by air. They’re also drawn to Australia because of the immigrant communities there. 15-year-old Afghani boy, Martin, again.

MARTIN: Australia is a country that supports the refugee people and they like the refugee people. And they go to Australia, with a boat to Australia, because of that – because they heard the news that Australia is a good country.

PERCY: If his family is ever able to afford the trip there are plenty of options. According to refugee advocacy groups smugglers and traffickers operate freely in Malaysia, assisted by corrupt immigration officials and police. Earlier this year, the United States put Malaysia back on a blacklist of nations for its failure to address the problems of human trafficking and smuggling. There are also some who believe the government is turning a blind eye to possible terrorists in the country. The Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has been trying to press the point with his regional colleagues that ayslum seekers are an Asia-wide problem. But until Malaysia and other nations are prepared to do more, the boats will keep coming.

Victor pastor speaks of abuses in Myanmar

The orphans of Myanmar wait far from Big Sky Country, but sometimes this seems the only place where help comes from.

For Pastor Wes Flint, their plight is too close to ignore. He's made 10 trips to Myanmar (he calls it by the old name, Burma) in the past three years, taking fellow Montanans to the Thailand river border where thousands of refugees seek security.

"These people have been abandoned, victimized and forgotten," he said of the Karen and Shan ethnic groups who've drawn the genocidal wrath of the country's army. "They have been broken, and the world just lets it go by. I can't do that anymore."

The leader of Victor's Crosspoint Christian Fellowship found an outlet for his hope in the international Christian organization Visions Beyond Borders. The group has straddled the political challenge of working with the country's military junta government to build orphanages there while at the same time helping its displaced people to escape.

Visions Beyond Borders was one of several aid organizations that tried to deliver food and supplies to victims of last year's Typhoon Nargis, which killed an estimated 140,000 people and left 60,000 children parentless. Flint said the group's internal contacts helped it deliver materials where others failed to clear the government roadblocks.

"But what I've been exposed to in the last year and a half or so - I'm trying to find the right words," he said during a visit to the Missoulian. "Shocking. Shocking human rights violations."

***

While most Myanmar news coverage has focused on imprisoned dissident and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, Flint said his time there has been spent with victims of rape, torture and sadistic abuse by the government.

One man in Flint's collection of photos lost his hands and eyes to a land mine that soldiers forced him to defuse. In a photo of a large group of children, Flint said half had witnessed their parents' murder, while the other half didn't know what had happened to their families.

Most of the refugees are concentrated on the Myanmar-Thailand border, which is both a physical and medical danger zone. The area is rife with malaria, dengue fever and other tropical diseases.

The Myanmar military frequently raids villages there, Flint said, driving the residents away and then planting land mines to keep them from returning. Thai authorities are not interested in harboring more refugees. And there are no jobs or farms to work, so no one can raise money or food to leave.

As a result, Visions Beyond Borders volunteers work both sides of the border, supporting a network of local activists who try to keep communications and aid moving. The group, which recently moved its headquarters from Sheridan, Wyo., to Bozeman, has made Flint a board member and given him the task of gathering national awareness to the Burmese efforts.

"We're always trying to find people with nursing or medical skills," he said of his volunteers. "We're also looking into hiring a counselor to help these children deal with what they've been through. But a lot of times, we're just there to load food and carry duffel bags. It's important to just let them know that someone cares."

Reporter Rob Chaney can be reached at 523-5382 or at rchaney@missoulian.com.

Angelina Jolie – support for Myanmar refugees

Angelina Jolie voices support for Myanmar refugees in northern Thailand camps 

BAN MAI NAI SOI REFUGEE CAMP, Thailand, February 5 (UNHCR) UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie has called on the Thai government to grant Myanmar refugees in northern Thailand greater freedom of movement, after spending a day listening to refugees tell of the difficulties they have faced in two decades of living in closed camps.

“I was saddened to meet a 21-year-old woman who was born in a refugee camp, who has never even been out of the camp and is now raising her own child in a camp,” Jolie said after her visit Wednesday to Ban Mai Nai Soi camp, home to 18,111 mainly Karenni registered refugees, just three kms from the Myanmar border, near Mae Hong Son.

“With no foreseeable chance that these refugees will soon be able to return to Burma (Myanmar), we must find some way to help them work and become self reliant,” she said.

The 111,000 registered refugees who live in nine camps in northern Thailand along the Thai-Myanmar border are not allowed to venture outside the camps to work or receive higher education.

In a thatched two-room house on stilts, Jolie sat down on the floor and chatted with refugee Ma Pai, a 44-year-old minority ethnic Kayan woman who has applied for resettlement to the United States.

At a boarding school for orphans and children separated from their parents, Jolie listened attentively as two teenage girls sent across the border to the refugee camp by their parents for education told of their fears that they might have to go back to Myanmar when they finish their schooling.

“I hope we can work with the Thai authorities to speed up the government admissions process and that you will not be forced to go back to Burma if danger remains,” Jolie said.

The Thai government’s Provincial Admissions Board, the only body that can grant refugee status to people fleeing fighting or persecution in Myanmar, has yet to process some 5,000 people who arrived in Mae Hong Son province in 2006 and 2007, the last time there was significant fighting in Kayah State just across the border. Throughout last year, people continued to trickle into Ban Mai Nai Soi and three other camps in the province, mostly fleeing forced labour and other human rights abuses.

One 26-year-old woman, Pan Sein, told Jolie she fled her village in Kayah State last November, and took a circuitous, hazardous journey on foot that finally brought her to the camp at the beginning of January.

“Weren’t you scared to leave your parents and come on your own?” Jolie asked.

“Yes, I was scared,” Pan Sein replied. “It was dangerous to flee, but even more dangerous to stay in my village.”

Jolie’s visit came at a time of worldwide attention to the large numbers of Rohingya migrants fleeing Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state in rickety boats, and just after UNHCR gained access to 78 Rohingya boat people in detention in Ranong in southern Thailand.

“Visiting Ban Mai Nai Soi and seeing how hospitable Thailand has been to 111,000 mostly Karen and Karenni refugees over the years makes me hope that Thailand will be just as generous to the Rohingya refugees who are now arriving on their shores,” Jolie said.

“I also hope the Rohingya situation stabilizes and their life in Myanmar improves so the people do not feel the desperate need to flee, especially considering how dangerous their journey has become,” she added. “As with all people, they deserve to have their human rights respected.”

By Kitty McKinsey
In Ban Mai Nai Soi Camp
http://www.unhcr.org/news/NEWS

Refugees protest Catholic Charities center

Ethnic Karens demand translator
Wednesday, November 25, 2009

By Ann Rodgers, Pittsburgh

GazetteBishop David Zubik talks yesterday with one of the Karen Burmese refugees protesting across the street from Catholic Charities after the opening of the Susan Zubic Welcome Center at the facility. The refugees were assembled to draw attention to what some are calling a failure to help them properly resettle in the Pittsburgh area.

Refugees from Myanmar picketed the opening of a new welcome center for clients of Catholic Charities at its Downtown office yesterday.

Bishop David Zubik of Pittsburgh, who dedicated the Susan Zubik Welcome Center in honor of his late mother, went out to meet the protesters, who spoke little or no English. Counting children, they included more than 30 ethnic Karens, who carried handwritten signs such as, "We demand a professional translator who speaks our language."

The protest was organized by Three Rivers Coalition for Justice, a group with ties to organized labor that helps workers with problems such as evictions. It printed a leaflet claiming that Catholic Charities had assigned the Karens a Burmese translator who did not speak the Karen dialect and who treated them with contempt.

It claimed that a Karen refugee facing eviction had given $500 to a Catholic Charities caseworker to pay his rent, but eviction notices kept coming. It also said that refugees are placed in low-paying, dangerous jobs.

Bishop Zubik said he tried to invite the protesters in for food. "But they didn't speak English."

He was approached by a union organizer who asked to meet with him, he said. Bishop Zubik said he told the man he was willing to meet right then or any time yesterday, but the leader told him that was impossible.

"I said it had to be today or else wait until Dec. 7. I gave him my office number. As of yet they haven't called," he said.

"I can stand up tall for Catholic Charities. There is no way they would knowingly be part of any of this, not only by the law of the country but by the law of the gospel."

Susan Rauscher, executive director of Catholic Charities of Pittsburgh, said she knew of most of the complaints, some of which are tied to a labor dispute at a metal fabrication plant in Rankin. But she said it was the first she had heard of an employee allegedly accepting rent money. Protocol is to help clients make payments themselves, she said.

Chad Rink, an Ironworkers organizer with Three Rivers Coalition for Justice, said he had heard the Karen refugee testify at an eviction hearing about the missing money. It was also at a court hearing, he said, that a Burmese translator for Catholic Charities "told me that Karen people are nothing but lazy."

Ms. Rauscher said that there are only 20 Karen translators nationwide, and that Catholic Charities investigated reports that their translator was prejudiced against Karens. Those who worked closely with her saw no sign of it, she said.

But the core of the dispute involves 14 Burmese workers at W&K Steel in Rankin. The Three Rivers Coalition for Justice says they are paid less than other workers, and that they all work in dangerous conditions.

Two W&K employees, one of them Burmese, went on strike in September, and Ironworkers Local 3 is supporting their action. According to the Coalition for Justice, there are 35 employees total. Ed Wilhelm, owner of W&K, did not return phone calls.

Ms. Rauscher said Catholic Charities didn't place any clients there, but that two got jobs on their own initiative. After the labor complaints, a social worker asked them if their workplace was safe and if they wanted to find new jobs.

"They said they liked their jobs and wanted to stay," she said.

Catholic Charities also sent an investigator to the site. No obvious safety violations were evident and the company produced a letter from its insurance company saying that it appeared to satisfy federal safety standards. Catholic Charities found no evidence of two-tier pay, and noted that the company paid for family health and vision insurance and provided English and math classes for the refugees.

"I'm not sure what's going on with W&K Steel and the Ironworkers. ... But from our perspective, we didn't see that this employer was exploiting the refugee workers," she said.

Mr. Rink said he believes the workers lied to Catholic Charities about work conditions.

"They are afraid for their jobs," he said.

Ms. Rausher said all refugees struggle to make ends meet, especially when they arrive without western job skills. The government provides a one-time grant of $425 to set them up in an apartment. Most of the money Catholic Charities spends on refugees is from donors, she said.

Ms. Rauscher said she had invited a union representative to spend a day at Catholic Charities, learning about its work with refugees. "We haven't got a response to that invitation," she said.

Mr. Rink said it would waste his time. "For me to spend the day down there would defeat the purpose. I'm in court fighting for refugees, and I see first hand what the issues are," he said.

Ann Rodgers can be reached at arodgers@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1416.

Aid agencies struggle to cope with refugees fleeing Burma

Aid agencies are reporting a massive increase in refugees fleeing Burma.

Andrew Scadding, director of the Thai Children's Trust said: "This human tragedy is on a scale greater than cyclone Nargis, and should command at least as generous a response from the public here and throughout the western world.

Out of the media spotlight, the Burmese Army similarly persists in breaking the rules of war by indiscriminately attacking civilians and causing massive displacement.

Jack Dunford, Executive Director of the Thailand Burma Border Consortium (TBBC) said: “After 25 years of responding to the consequences of conflict in eastern Burma, it is tragic to see the causes remain unaddressed and the situation is likely to further deteriorate during the next twelve months. A recent influx of refugees into Thailand and monitoring reports from internally displaced communities indicate that violence and abuse in eastern Burma are increasing”.

TBBC is an alliance of twelve aid agencies from ten countries working to provide food, shelter, non-food items and capacity building support to Burmese refugees and displaced persons. Christian Aid is a UK member charity and CAFOD support TBBC via Caritas.

The humanitarian agency has just released findings from field surveys about conflict and displacement conducted with over 3,100 households during the past five years in rural areas of eastern Burma.

The main threats to human security in eastern Burma are related to militarisation. Military patrols and landmines are the most significant and fastest growing threat to civilian safety and security, while forced labour and restrictions on movement are the most pervasive threats to livelihoods. Trend analysis suggests that the threats to both security and livelihoods have increased during the past five years.

Over 3,500 villages and hiding sites in eastern Burma have been destroyed or forcibly relocated since 1996, including 120 communities between August 2008 and July 2009. The scale of displaced villages is comparable to the situation in Darfur and has been recognised as the strongest single indicator of crimes against humanity in eastern Burma. At least 75,000 people were forced to leave their homes during this past year, and more than half a million people remain internally displaced.

The highest rates of recent displacement were reported in northern Karen areas and southern Shan State.

Almost 60,000 Karen villagers are hiding in the mountains of Kyaukgyi, Thandaung and Papun Townships, and a third of these civilians fled from artillery attacks or the threat of Burmese Army patrols during the past year. Similarly, nearly 20,000 civilians from 30 Shan villages were forcibly relocated by the Burmese Army in retaliation for Shan State Army-South (SSA-S) operations in Laikha, Mong Kung and Keh Si Townships.

Thailand’s National Security Council recently acknowledged it was preparing for another mass influx of refugees due to conflict in Burma’s border areas leading up to the proposed elections in 2010. Conflict has already intensified in Karen State with over 4,000 Karen refugees fleeing into Thailand during June. The increased instability is related to demands that ethnic ceasefire groups transform into Border Guard Forces under Burmese Army command. Such pressure has already resulted in the resumption of hostilities in the Kokang region which caused 37,000 civilians to flee into China.

“The breakdown of 20 year old ceasefire agreements reflects how the Burmese junta’s ‘road map to democracy’ offers no political settlement for the ethnic minority groups. Whether next year’s elections provide a small window of opportunity or merely entrench military rule, there is an urgent need to address ethnic grievances in order to promote national reconciliation and solutions for displaced persons”, said Mr Dunford.

Andrew Scadding, director of the Thai Children's Trust, which supports 700 refugee children at the Hsa Thoo Lei Learning Centre, and sponsors 47 more schools and nutrition projects on the Thai-Burmese border said of the report: "It is a disappointing read, but it is entirely consistent with what we in TCT have learned from our Karen and Burmese colleagues over the past few months.

"The total number of refugees of on both sides of the border may now approach twp million, with more than a million of these in Thailand.

"TBBC are facing an impossible task, trying to deal with a burgeoning problem whilst their resources are being cut, but they are feeding only 130,000 of the refugees in camps. I think I am correct in saying that this is 30,000 fewer than twelve months ago, whilst the total number of refugees has increased following action by SPDC forces in the Eastern provinces of Burma this year. The vast majority live illegally in slum shacks and are hopeless, poverty stricken and vulnerable to the most brutal exploitation.

"This human tragedy is on a scale greater than cyclone Nargis, and should command at least as generous a response from the public here and throughout the western world. Western governments should be firm in their criticism of the brutality of the SPDC and generous in their response to the needs of the Burmese refugees. Instead they ignore the problem, and funding to TBBC is progressively reduced. It’s a disgrace."

Evangelical, and Young, and Active in New Area

On the first day of her college internship in the late summer of 2007, Jenna Liao waited amid the baggage carousels of O’Hare International Airport in Chicago. Just 21 and newly assigned to an agency that helps refugees, she had been told only to expect a family of 10 from Myanmar. She and a caseworker were to drive them here to the first temporary home of their new lives.

The family trudged into Ms. Liao’s view after 19 years in a refugee camp and 30 hours of trans-Pacific travel. All their belongings fit into two plaid plastic bags, and in that moment, as Ms. Liao recently recalled, she winced at the memory of starting college with four times as much luggage.

No sooner did the family squeeze into the caseworker’s van than several children began crying. Soon a few others vomited with motion sickness. Seated among them, with no relevant experience and no common language, Ms. Liao wondered what she could do.

Then she remembered that someone had given her a Slinky for the Burmese children, and she began to coax its coils into undulating waves. The impromptu show stilled the tears and stomachs alike. Later, when the Burmese reached their apartment, Ms. Liao showed the parents how to turn on the lights and faucets, and pointed to the stacks of fresh underwear on each bed.

That night, Ms. Liao called her mother. “I know what I want to do when I grow up,” she recalls telling her. “I want to work with refugees.”

Two years later, Ms. Liao works full time coordinating volunteers for World Relief, the same agency for which she interned. In a given year, she has a hand in resettling upward of 400 families, with nearly half of the most recent arrivals Iraqis.

The choice she made was both personal and emblematic. For in coming to the work of refugee resettlement, and more broadly of seeking social justice in a fallen world, Ms. Liao embodied a dramatic change among her generation of evangelical Christians.

Without disowning longstanding causes for evangelical activists like opposition to abortion or support for school vouchers, these young evangelicals have taken up issues previously abdicated to secular and religious liberals: climate change, AIDS prevention and treatment, Third World poverty.

“Jesus, when he lived on this earth, was with the poor and the outcasts,” Ms. Liao said in an interview. “And I want to be where God was at.”

Among her colleagues in the Wheaton office of World Relief is Matthew Soerens, who at 26 has already written a book, with Jenny Hwang, on immigration reform from an evangelical Christian perspective, “Welcoming the Stranger.” The executive director of the office, Hayley Meksi, is 32.

“It’s not that we’ve rejected the issues that our parents were concerned about,” Mr. Soerens said. “We’ve widened the spectrum of issues that can be dealt with on a biblical basis and that our Christian faith speaks to.”

Still, there was little in the upbringing of these young evangelicals that made social justice the obvious career choice or theological focus. Ms. Liao is the daughter of a career Army officer who served in both Iraq wars. She was home-schooled for several years, and she cried the night Bill Clinton defeated Senator Bob Dole, a World War II veteran, to win his second term as president.

Coming to the United States from a military base in Germany to start college, Ms. Liao enrolled at Wheaton College, the alma mater of the Rev. Billy Graham and the center of a region of suburban Chicago known as the “evangelical Vatican.” For most of its history, it was also a place that was overwhelmingly white and uniformly affluent.

What happened to both Wheaton and Jenna Liao tells much about the shifts in evangelical Christianity as a whole. Her Christian education exposed her to examples of religious idealism from St. Thomas Aquinas to Mother Teresa to the progressive evangelical ministers Jim Wallis and Soong-Chan Rah.

While still a student at Wheaton, Ms. Liao took part in a national conference about AIDS for young evangelicals. She volunteered on a weekly basis at a homeless shelter for gay men in Chicago. She met her future husband, Richard Liao, literally over the ladle at a soup kitchen.

Every experience served to confirm what Ms. Liao thought of as her scriptural mission statement, the passage in the Beatitudes that blesses the poor, the meek, the mournful, the oppressed.

As Ms. Liao’s conscience stirred, so did the community of Wheaton’s. Starting with a sprinkling of Vietnamese refugees in the late 1970s, the town and its scores of churches welcomed a growing stream of refugees — few of them white, many of them not Christian. World Relief opened here in 1984 and now has an annual budget of $3.7 million and a caseload of 5,000 immigrants and refugees.

What it meant, in palpably human terms, was that a few days before Thanksgiving Ms. Liao stopped by the tidy apartment of Aseel Raoof, an Iraqi refugee whom she had helped to resettle in 2008.

Over cake and fruit juice, Mrs. Raoof recounted an almost unimaginable series of attacks against her family and friends — murders, kidnappings, suicide bombings, stray gunfire, death threats, all topped off by her husband’s abduction.

After being held for more than two years, the husband is safe at last and now applying for entry to the United States. One son is headed to college to study pharmacy, Mrs. Raoof’s profession. The walls of the apartment abound in children’s drawings. Tears still come, but they stop.

“I feel like God is in this work, and I want to be there with him,” Ms. Liao said after the visit. “That’s the only way to live if you’re living by a higher code.”

E-mail: sgfreedman@nytimes.com

First a refugee, now homeless

By Lorraine Ahearn
Staff Writer

GREENSBORO — In a case that highlights thinning assistance for incoming refugees, a Burmese exile resettled through the United Nations has taken emergency shelter at Greensboro Urban Ministry.

Soe Win, 56, arrived in 2007 to be resettled by Lutheran Family Services. Now destitute and suffering from a breakdown, he arrived in mid-

November at the homeless day center on East Bessemer Avenue.

There, volunteer social workers contacted Lutheran Family Services, but no services were available. Win is now staying at Urban Ministry’s Weaver House until the winter emergency shelters open at local churches next month.

“It may be the first case like this,” State Refugee Coordinator Marlene Myers said this week, “but it won’t be the last.”

Myers was in Greensboro this week to meet with a network of local providers who are expected to help resettle 800 of the state’s anticipated 2,100 new refugee arrivals this year.

Guilford County has led the state in resettling political refugees because four local nonprofit agencies have contracts to do so: Lutheran Family Services, Church World Services, World Relief of High Point and N.C. African Services Coalition. Refugees are resettled within a 50-mile radius of the agencies.

Until now, Myers said, the resources have seemed to suffice — a “reception and placement” allowance of $850 per person, plus a $181 per month stipend in the initial months after arrival — with nearly every service directed at getting refugees jobs.

“In the past, it was very realistic. For the most part, it worked,” said Myers, who said few refugees had received cash assistance such as Aid to Families with Dependent Children.

“Lots of us have felt it would be great — on a federal level — to respond to the increased length of time it’s taking for them to find employment.”

Win, who speaks no English, spent 20 years in a Thai refugee camp after escaping from Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. He left family behind to come to the U.S., working briefly in a plastics factory, he said through an interpreter, the Rev. Thang Lian Kaap of Myanmar Community Church.

Suffering severe depression and occasional hallucinations, according to social workers, Win stayed with Burmese friends who supported him for as long as they were able. After his friends moved, Win was left alone and was evicted from his apartment.

At the Interactive Resource Center on East Bessemer, where Win showed up earlier this month, social workers contacted Lutheran Family Services to ask for help. Win’s caseworker, Halat Mlo, said Friday that the agency has no Burmese interpreters and that no services were available beyond a client’s initial year.

UNCG social work graduate student Jennifer Clark said LFS gave her the same answer earlier this month when Win showed up at the day center where Clark interns and the staff tried to find help for him.

“I was in desperate need of an interpreter, and I was kind of shocked that this (LFS) was the agency that everybody was referring me to,” Clark said.

“It would be like calling the health department for medication and being told, 'We don’t do medication.’ ”

Myers, who oversees the N.C. Office of Refugee Resettlement, said follow-up services average 12 months . They revolve around finding work, and rental assistance is usually limited to one month per person .

In 2008, Guilford County resettled at least 35 percent of the state’s refugees, although Myers said that percentage might be low.

At Weaver House, assistant manager Randy Dale said he believed Win was the first refugee to become homeless here. Clark said she had spoken to two African men who also checked into the shelter this week, one from Ethiopia and another from an unidentified country in northern Africa. She was uncertain whether they had arrived as refugees.

Win said he was grateful to be sheltered and fed, but his main concern was that he had no job.

Both the pastor and the social workers said Win needs treatment for depression and other symptoms before he can work.

With so many North Carolinians out of work, Myers’ assistant, Pat Priest, observed that it might be human nature to question the importance of refugee resettlement.

In Angela Chavis’ view, however, refugees are what defines the United States. Recognizing the increasing need this winter and the lack of resources and coordination, she has organized a mutual assistance agency, HeavensGate World Services.

The group is set up to marshal the community to help with refugee needs.

“If we can’t put our arms out there to greet these people, what does it mean to be an American?” Chavis said.

“These people are not here by choice. They’re displaced because of civil war and trying to find a sustainable life,” she said. “They’re going to be an asset to us.”



Contact Lorraine Ahearn at 373-7334 or lahearn@news-record.com

Chin Refugee Detainee Died at Lenggeng Camp

Mr. Aung Lyn from Khua Kawng, Rezua Township died at Lenggeng Immigration camp on 15 September, 2009. Mr. Aung Lyn arrivied at Malaysia in February, 2007 and he stayed for more than two years in Malaysia. He was arrested on 29 May, 2009 in a raid of People Volunteer Corp (RELA), Immigration and Police at Putra Jaya where he worked.

According to the report of his brother, Mr. Aung Lyn was still healthy when he called him on 28 August but a moment later, his brother suddenly heard the news that Aung Lin died at the depot. His death is unbelievable and very difficult to bear for us, he added.

His fellow inmate also informed to Chin Refugee Committee, saying he was swelling and died within a few days. We believed that he might have been suffering from Meningitis. When he felt sick, his eyes became yellow and felt weak. A moment later, he died because he was neglected to admit to hospital for medical treatment by camp authorities.

After he died, his remaining was taken by the camp authority to Seremban hospital without giving information to any refugee organization and NGO so any organization could not know where the remaining was being kept. After three days, the Chin Refugee Committee came to know that his body was taken to Seremban Hospital. Fortunately, the body was released with the help of Chin refugee leaders without pay.

According to his relatives and villagers in Malaysia, one of Aung Lyn brother-in-laws also passed away at General Hospital, Kuala Lumpur on 17 July, 2009. He also was arrested for being undocumented and detained at Kajang Immigration camp. When he became sick, the camp authority admitted him to the hospital but he passed away a week later. He left his wife with seven months pregnancy, and the wife is being taken cared by the villagers in Malaysia.

An NGO, which helps the refugees, denounced the situation inside the detention camp that the camp authority always denies to access for medical treatment. The main infected diseases spread due to the drinking water and mice (rats), the NGO added. As the camp authority do not provided drinking water, the tap water is used for drinking which comes from dirty tank where dead rats are floating.

Free school for Burmese children to shut down

A free school called ‘Moe Toah Star’ (Dawn Star Donated Wisdom School) meant for Burmese children living in Mizoram, in Northeast India, is being shut down for a short period by the order of the Young Mizo Association (YMA).

The school had started functioning from October 26 with a lady Burmese teacher, who was paid Rs. 3000 per month. There are 25 students in the school. However, some leaders of YMA in Zuangtuai block have ordered the school to shut down for the time being, as permission for the school to remain open has to be discussed at higher level meetings of YMA.

“They did not inform us about setting up the school before they started. They informed us when it was already functioning through a letter, after which we informed the Central Committee of YMA. The school has to be closed before we hear what announcement was made in the Central YMA meeting,” said one of the leaders from Zuangtui block YMA.

Regarding this, a leader of an NGO said that they did not know how to handle this matter as they had informed the YMA recently. He also said that they were working towards the welfare of the people and not harming them and they expected the leaders of the YMA to understand and let them reopen the school soon.

However, reopening the school is mainly dependent on the discussions of the Central YMA committee. Therefore, 25 students of Burmese origin, migrant children have gone back to their respective houses in order to help their parents.

“They have no right to open a foreign school in our country, India. If they want to put their children into a school they have to approach government schools or other private schools,” said the president of Zuangtui block YMA.

Meanwhile, the ‘Dawn Star’ school committee members have decided to approach the Mizoram government in order to reopen the school soon.

Thai refugee camps face tough year ahead

Rising rice prices and the threat of an influx of Burmese refugees into Thailand over the coming year could place a heavy strain on refugee camps along the border, the head of a refugee aid group warned.

The comments came in the wake of a visit by European Union officials to the Mae La camp in Thailand’s western Tak province, which is home to some 40,000 Burmese refugees.

EU funding accounts for around 65 percent of the total $US60 million in international aid that goes to the camps each year.

Jack Dunford, head of the Bangkok-based Thailand Burma Border Consortium (TBBC), which provides food, shelter and amenities to the camps, said that enough funding had been secured for this year, but warned of an uncertain 12 months ahead.

“There are three variables that we have no control over: exchange rates, the price of rice and the number of refugees, so when we look at annual funding we always have to do some guess work,” he said.

“All three tend to be going against us, and with the global funding squeeze, we are expecting that next year is going to be difficult.”

While the price of rice has dropped since the peak of the global food crisis last year, he warned that widespread flooding and storms in India and the Philippines, two of the region’s main rice producers, may push prices back up.

He also warned of a possible exodus of Burmese fleeing fighting in the run-up to elections in Burma next year, many of whom would cross into Thailand.

“Over the next 12 months we’re facing very uncertain times in Burma, in particular huge uncertainties about what’s going to happen in the border areas,” Dunford said. “We’ll obviously see how it plays out, but we could have a major emergency.”

The Burmese government has been aggressively attempting to transform the country’s 18 ceasefire groups into border guard forces prior to polling; a move that it believes would significantly strengthen its dominance in the volatile border regions.

Fighting between Burmese troops, supported by the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), and the opposition Karen National Union (KNU) in June, forced around 5000 Karen civilians into Thailand, many of whom ended up in makeshift camps.

Another outbreak of fighting in Burma’s northeastern Shan state in August and September caused some 37,000 refugees to cross into neighbouring China.

Some of the camps along the Thai-Burma border have been in place for 25 years, and the EU has sent a senior-level delegation each year to assess conditions inside the camps. In total, around 130,000 Burmese refugees live in the nine camps, the majority from Karen state.

Security Sweep Rounds Up Migrants

About 62 Burmese migrants who work at the Night Bazaar in Chiang Mai were arrested on Tuesday, reportedly as part of a security sweep prior to Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s two-day visit to Chiang Mai starting on November 28.

Aung Toe, 40, a Burmese migrant, told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday, “They arrested many people while they were working, including some who had work permits.”

He said authorities swept through the popular Night Bazaar looking for people who appeared to be Burmese.

“I escaped because I look more Chinese or Japanese,” Aung Toe said.

Another Burmese worker in the market, Phe Be, said people who tried to run away were beaten by police.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva will be in Chiang Mai on a two-day visit, his first since he was elected one year ago.

The security in the city is tighter than before since a local radio station announcer who supports anti-government group reportedly made threatening remarks about taking the prime minister’s life if he came to Chiang Mai. The government is investigating the threat.

An opposition political group, known as the Red Shirts, has said it will hold demonstrations during the prime minister’s visit.

Jackie Pollock, a founder of of the Migrant Assistance Program (MAP), a Chiang Mai-based NGO said, “The challenge to the current administration is from the electorate, not from the migrants who have no political rights. To try and silence a group of people like the migrants who are already silenced makes little sense beyond diverting the media and others’ attention away from the real issues.”

An estimated 80,000 Burmese migrants—both registered and unregistered—work in the Chiang Mai area. The majority are ethnic Shan.

Malaysian Paid US$35,000 To Smuggle Sri Lankan Tamil To Australia

By Neville D’Cruz

MELBOURNE, Nov 25 (Bernama) — A Sri Lankan refugee has revealed to a newspaper here how a professional people-smuggler in Malaysia gave him false travel documents that enabled him to get a protection visa after arriving by air in Australia.

The 23-year-old Tamil man, who asked to be identified only as “Sanjay”, told “The Australian” newspaper that he fled his home on Sri Lanka’s Jaffna Peninsula in 2007 at the height of the conflict between the Sri Lankan armed forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).


Sanjay, who claims to have no LTTE connections, said he was detained in 2007 for 20 days, during which time he was kept blindfolded and handcuffed to a pillar, beaten with rifle butts and batons and burned with cigarettes. He fled Sri Lanka in mid-2007 for Malaysia.

He said that early this year he was introduced to a Malaysian Tamil people-smuggler who told him the fee to travel by boat was US$15,000 (RM50,641), while the cost to travel by air was more than double that.

Afraid to send their only son on the perilous sea voyage, Sanjay’s family, which owned a transport business in Jaffna, sold their fleet of vehicles to raise the money for his escape to Australia.

The US$35,000 (RM118,146) was paid directly to the agent in Malaysia.

Sanjay was handed a one-way airline ticket to Australia and a false Canadian passport containing a forged Australian visa.

He flew to Australia on April 12. Having been told by the people-smuggler that he would be immediately deported if caught with false documents, he tore up his passport on the plane and flushed it down the lavatory.

Sanjay presented himself at the immigration desk at Perth airport and announced, “I am a Sri Lankan refugee”. He spent six months in Villawood detention centre before being released with permanent residency status a few weeks ago.

Figures from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship show the number of asylum-seekers who arrive by plane dwarfs the numbers who arrive by boat, the newspaper said.

An Immigration spokesman said that in 2008-09, some 206 people were granted protection visas after arriving in Australia by boat, while 2,172 received protection after arriving by plane.

People Living With HIV Need Support And Friends

People Living With HIV Need Support And Friends

By Melati Mohd Ariff

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 25 (Bernama) -- Life has not been easy for Ma Hninn Si (not her real name). About two years ago she fled her country with her two younger sisters. They took boat rides twice to reach the Myanmar-Thai border before paying a hefty sum for a safe passage to the Thai-Malaysia border and then to Kuala Lumpur.

The 25-year old petite lady's plight, however, did not end there. Two months after settling down in the city in October 2007, she started having fever, continuous cough and began to lose weight.

She thought it might be malaria, considering the number of days she had to hide in the jungles before taken to the Thai-Malaysia border. She also thought she might be having tuberculosis but never the diagnosis the doctor at a private clinic gave her - infected by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)!

Hninn Si (which in the Myanmarese language means rose flower) was not only in great shock but lost all hopes of living any longer.

"I thought my life was over. There was no future for me. I thought of my sisters as they were still very young. They became refugees because of me.

"Without our parents or close relatives, how could they survive in a foreign country?" lamented Hninn Si.

She shared her difficult times with the participants of a roundtable discussion on HIV and AIDS organised recently by the United Nations Theme Group on HIV.

Hninn Si told Bernama later that she suspected contracting the virus through blood transfusion when she underwent an operation for ulcer in her intestines in 2001.

TOO MUCH FEAR

Stigma and discrimination forced Hninn Si to remain silent on the virus that has been wrecking her small body.

Her friends became suspicious of her condition and began to suspect she had HIV.

"They asked many questions but I did not want to answer. My little sister stopped going to church because she wanted to avoid the questions.

"I was physically and mentally worn out. I was scared to meet people. I told myself I was nothing but I also felt that other people were treating me like I was nothing," she sighed.

Hninn Si became more depressed as the days went by but she was fortunate that she had her two younger sisters looking after her as she fell sick frequently.

"It broke my heart to see my sister working so hard. I should be the one supporting them, but I could not.

"I also needed better food because of my health but I could not afford it. I had no choice but to eat whatever is available," she added.

Hninn Si said one of her sisters worked tirelessly, cleaning restaurants and houses to help put food on the table and pay for the rented room in a flat they shared with many others.

"When I went to check my CD4 count, I was charged double. Every time I visit the government hospital, I have to pay RM30 and that was how much my sister earns a day," she said.

FINALLY TREATED

According to Hninn Si, she has never heard of any treatment for HIV. She only thought that once a person had the virus, he or she succumbs to the dreadful disease in a matter of few years.

But her fate changed in early 2008 when a counsellor from Malaysian Care paid her a visit.

"Through his counselling, I knew about HIV treatment for the first time and he encouraged me so much and gave me the much needed hope for the future," she said.

Malaysian Care, a Christian non-governmental organization founded in the late 1970's, offers diversified services such as residential care and community services and is strongly committed to community development.

According to Hninn Si, she was later admitted to Sg Buloh Hospital and received HAART (Highly Active Antiretroviral Theraphy) treatment.

"Sg Buloh hospital is an excellent hospital. Even though I am a refugee, all the staff at the hospital treated me very well. They did all the best for me," she explained.

However, she added, she had terrible side effects for six months that caused her skin to become very dark besides ending up with a swollen face and lips.

"My body was full of marks and rashes. Friends and the people around dare not come close and they did not even want to shake hands with me.

"I was teaching English to refugee students before this and I was very sad when they kept away after getting to know I was HIV positive. I was afraid to even leave the house to go to church," said Hninn Si.

A HIV positive person who suffers such side effects, she said, would have a low self-esteem and that is when friends are needed most.

"I did not receive such support," she said.

CHANGE IN LIFE

Hninn Si said she is much better now not only physically but also mentally and emotionally. She told Bernama she only needs to go to the Sg Buloh Hospital once in four months for follow-up treatment.

In many ways, she considered herself lucky as her ability to converse well in English has enabled her to go to Malaysian clinics unlike most refugees.

She has also regained her self-confidence when she was given a chance by a church to conduct tuition classes for refugee children.

Hninn Si who is an English graduate thought elementary English to a group of refugee children aged from 13 to 18 years old.

"I was finally able to earn an income. It helped to lift my spirits, gave me confidence and restored my dignity," she added.

Hninn Si said she has stopped giving tuition for the past five months as she wanted to focus on her new found job as a peer counselor for a project mooted by UNHCR and Malaysian Care.

The project, she said is known as "Project Long Life" based at the Sg Buloh Hospital.

"As peer counselor, I am not only able to help myself but help others too. But many other refugees who are HIV positive are not so lucky," said Hninn Si.

She told Bernama that she had helped to counsel about 50 refugee HIV patients and admitted that the job has been challenging where she also has to conduct home visits.

"Now if someone asks me what am I doing, I can answer with pride that I have a job even though I am HIV positive. I can share this confidence with others.

"I can also get back into the society. Before, people saw me as a dangerous person but now I understand I am not a harmful person. All HIV positive persons should be given the encouragement and opportunity to work.

"Especially so for HIV positive refugees because they need to be able to earn an income to take better care of their health," said Hninn Si.

OTHER CONCERN

Hninn Si also talked about the plight of some HIV positive refugees mainly from Myanmar who suffered from mental problems.

The condition, she said was not only because they were HIV positive but also due to stress and depression resulting from stigma and discrimination including from their own community.

She pointed out there had been cases where the refugees lost their jobs once their boss knew they had HIV.

"They have problems of getting a new job, so how are they going to survive?

"People living with HIV, we all hunger for love, friends and help. Will you be our friend? Your smile is our strength. Your encouragement is our hope.

"Please extend your hands to hold our hands. We are also human beings, please accept us as what we are," she said.

-- BERNAMA

Tamil refugees facing harassment in Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur, Nov. 25 : After fleeing the shores of their war-torn country, Sri Lankan Tamil refugees here in Malaysia are facing harassment at the hands of the police and RELA (paramilitary) officers.

The Star Online quoted Tamil refugees, as saying that Myanmar refugees are treated differently from their Sri Lankans counterparts.

They are also finding it hard to get jobs in Malaysia.

Tamil Forum Malaysia, a non-governmental organisation, is currently pushing for temporary work permits for the adults and building a school for the children.

There are about 4,000 Sri Lankan refugees in Malaysia as a result of the island state's 20-year civil war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Some Comments

By SUPERSTAR48, 11-25-09, 01:46 PM

What are the so called NGO’s doing about this? When coming to collect large sums of money all around the country sympathy meetings are held and large sums are collescted with the pretext of donations and now this happens.1Malaysia is to kill every indian in the country. All polictical parties talking about uplifting the cursed race indian, are only for personal and political glory only.Umno Mic Mca Gerakan Muip Mmsp Ipf Pas Dap Keadilan Ppp are all a complete set worms not worth commenting.Why i said worm is because,after doing all the sins the earth is the only owner to our sinful body,and only the worm will take its share.

No more food at this food court

No more food at this food court

A FOOD court at Jalan 223 in Petaling Jaya was literally paralysed after officers from the Immigration Department raided the place and picked up 19 foreign workers yesterday.

The raid was held at noon, the busiest time at the food court. The foreigners working as kitchen helpers, waitresses and cooks were unaware of the team's arrival and thought they were local council officers stopping for lunch.

DETAINED: Nineteen foreign workers were detained at Jalan 223 food court and taken to Selangor Immigration Department in Shah Alam

Selangor Immigration Department deputy director Abdillah Azizudin said they had observed the eatery for about a week before moving in.

He said the workers, five men and 14 women, were from Indonesia, Bangladesh and India.

They were detained under the Immigration Act 1959/63 for overstaying, not possessing valid travel documents, working with expired permits and misusing their work permits or passes.

“In this case, the employer who hired the illegal workers stands a chance of being charged as well,” Abdillah said.

The workers were taken to Shah Alam for documentation before being sent to Semenyih and KL International Airport Immigration Centre.

In another operation, two Indonesian men were arrested during a joint operation by Ampang Jaya police, Ampang Jaya Municipal Council and Volunteer Corps (Rela) at an illegal settlement near Taman Ukay Perdana, Hulu Kelang.

The suspects, aged 30 and 50, were arrested for not having valid travel documents and were suspected to be involved in house break-ins.

Ampang Jaya police chief Assistant Commissioner Abdul Jalil Hassan said the operation, dubbed as “Ops Nyah”, was conducted following complaints from the public, claiming a rise in burglaries, robberies and snatch thefts in the area.

In the operation, many managed to slip through the dragnet. Police found several parangs in some of the 'kongsi' units.

Abdul Jalil assured residents that more operations will be conducted in the area from time to time.

Every child’s right

By ALYCIA LIM

EMI Eriza Jasut, 16, and Faezlan Angah Mohammad Zaini, 13, may look like any other school-going children.

But speaking to them, it was realised that they were the lucky few orang asli children who have the privilege to attend school since Year One.

Emi said that at the school she attends – SMK Sungai Pusu, Gombak – there were just over 50 orang asli students, about eight of them per class.

When she meets her friends who do not have the opportunity to attend school, Emi said that she would sometimes teach them how to read and write.

From left: Ragunath, Youssouf, Faezlan, Marina, Dr Siti Hasmah, Emi and Dr Zulkurnain at the launch of Unicef’s ‘State of the World’s Children’ special anniversary report.

“In the village, there is no exposure at all. Even if the children there want to go out or attend school, they cannot do so due to the lack of finances.”

She added with a smile, “I would also buy my friends from the village lunch sometimes when I have the time and money.”

Fortunately for Emi, her family realises the importance of education, and her father, who works as an assistant in a government department, always encourages her to read at home.

“I want to be a model for all the other children in my village, because with all the exposure and education I am getting, I hope that I would be able to encourage them not to give up.”

Faezlan said, “When I went back to my hometown, a rural area in Perak, I asked some of the children which school they went to, but they did not answer. One of them told me they did not go to school.”

When he asked his father why, he was told that many of them had to go out to look for food in the jungle, and the eldest child had to stay home to take care of their younger siblings.

Faezlan then voiced his concerns, “What will these children do when they grow up? I hope their parents would change their minds and be aware of the importance of education.”

Emi and Faezlan presented a copy of the United Nation Children’s Fund (Unicef)’s ‘State of the World’s Children’ special anniversary report to former prime minister’s wife Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali, who later launched the report in Malaysia.

In her speech, Dr Siti Hasmah said: “Instead of being in school, many children remain in the shadows of disparities and discrimination.”

“If there is even one child left behind, it is one child too many.

“For every child we leave behind, we leave generations more vulnerable to poverty, exploitation and lost opportunities,” she added.

Malaysian Bar president K. Ragunath said that Malaysia ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1995, which should be enjoyed by all children, and not just the privileged few.

“Today, many children in Malaysia face difficulties in accessing education.

“This robs them of achieving their full potential,” he said.

Video clips were also presented during the launch ceremony, showing the voices of children from different backgrounds.

One of the videos depicted 13-year-old Linda, a refugee from Myanmar, who told her story of not having access to government schools because she did not have a birth certificate.

“I want to go to a government school because you study longer and you can take exams. Then I would know whether I got an ‘A’ or not.

“But for now, at least some knowledge is better than none,” she said.

The ceremony was held in conjunction with the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Also present at the event were Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir, Unicef representative to Malaysia Youssouf Oomar, and Education Ministry secretary general Tan Sri Dr Zulkurnain Awang.

Malaysia under pressure over refugees

As Australia steps up pressure on its Asian neighbours to reduce people smuggling in the region, the Malaysian government is under pressure to demonstrate its commitment to stem the human tide.

An estimated 100,000 refugees are thought to reside in Malaysia. The vast majority of refugees are Burmese but there are also significant numbers of Sri Lankans and Afghans.

While many of the refugees, especially those who are Muslim, would like to stay in Malaysia, increasingly they are being forced out.

Malaysia does not recognise refugees, even if the United Nations High Commission for Refugees has assessed them and given them supporting documentation.

Malaysian authorities treat them as illegal immigrants or worse hand them over to trafficking rings.

An Afghani father of four, named 'John' told the ABC's Karen Percy, if he had money he would not spend one more minute in Malaysia.

With his son translating the 41 year old says he would put his family on a boat to Australia, even with the risk of perishing at sea.

He's heard other Afghani families have been allowed to settle in Australia.

But such a journey would cost him about 5,000 dollars, money he just doesn't have.

'John' flew into Kuala Lumpur with his wife and sons two years ago. He is originally from Afghanistan and his children were born in Iran.

The family has converted to Christianity and fears religious persecution if they were forced to return to Afghanistan.

'John' says they are also poorly treated in Muslim dominated Malaysia.

Tough life

Temme Lee, spokeswoman for Malaysian refugee advocacy group Suarem, says life in Malaysia is tough for refugees.

"For those who have lived here for many, from five to ten years, they start to get very desperate because they get trapped in the cycle of arrest, detention and often deportation."

"And they're subjected to a lot of abuse by local authorities and locals themselves here in Malaysia"

The family's case is currently with the UNHCR.

John's 15 year old son, 'Martin' says it's a grim life where refugees are even subjected to death threats.

"My life is like the darkness. My life in Malaysia doesn't have any life in it,"

"My wish is to be a doctor, but now I cannot...I like to study, I like to have a good life...but in Malaysia we cannot."

'Martin' used to have a job in a restaurant in Kuala Lumpur but his boss told him he had to stand during the whole 12 hours of his shift. He left rather than complain and risk being reported to the authorities.

Poor treatment

Cases like this are prevalent in Malaysia. Employers seem to have few qualms about taking advantage of the poor citizens of neighbouring countries.

Rohingyas from Burma are paid a pittance to work on the fishing boats while domestic workers from the Philippines and Indonesia are routinely abused both physically and mentally.

Refugees from Malaysia choose to go Australia in part because of proximity but more importantly, when travelling by boat there is no need for paperwork, unlike arriving by air.

They're also drawn to Australia because of the immigrant communities in the country.

'Martin' says asylum seekers have heard Australia supports refugees.

"Australia is a country that supports refugee people. And they like refugee people."

If his family is ever able to afford the trip, there are plenty of options.

According to refugee advocacy groups, smugglers and traffickers operate freely in Malaysia, assisted by corrupt immigration officials and police.

Earlier this year, the United States put Malaysia back on a blacklist of nations for its failure to address the problems of human trafficking and smuggling.

There are also some who believe the government is turning a blind eye to possible terrorists in the country

The Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd has been trying to press the point with his regional colleagues that asylum seekers are an Asia wide problem.

But until Malaysia and other nations are prepared to do more the boats will keep coming.

London students build kindergarten for Myanmar refugees

THAILAND London students build kindergarten for Myanmar refugees

LONDON (UCAN) -- A school for Myanmar refugee children in northern Thailand has a new kindergarten classroom thanks to a group of London students.

Students from London pass cement down the line while building a classroom for Myanmar refugee children

The school at Phop Phra in Tak province is one of about 10 in Thailand run by La Fondation de la Sagesse, (wisdom foundation), headed by French Father Olivier Prodhomme, a Paris Foreign Missions priest.

The new classroom was funded and built - with help from local craftsmen - by residents of Netherhall House, a residence for international students at various London universities including the London School of Economics, University College, London, and the Royal Academy of Music.

The 93 students at Netherhall are of more than 20 nationalities. About 60 percent are Catholics and many of the others are not Christians. They raise money every year for a project abroad, and a small group then travels to do the work. Project countries have included Nicaragua and South Africa.

Their first "work camp" in Thailand was last year, at Father Prodhomme's All Saints Thandiaw School in Mae Sot, on the Myanmar border. They built a classroom at the school, which has 210 pupils.

This year, seven students including one Malaysian and one Singaporean spent three weeks in Phop Phra with Netherhall's chaplain, Father Joseph Evans, and its secretary, Alvaro Tintore. They build a kindergarten classroom at St Peter's, a school for 100 kindergarten and primary pupils.

"We raise all the money ourselves, enough to pay for building materials, local labor, and travel and living expenses," Tintore told UCA News. "This year the total cost was about £8,000 (US$13,300), and we raised that much and enough to leave a donation of £500."

Father Evans added: "Nearly all of it is raised by a raffle run by the students, with prizes donated by well-wishers. We make appeals from the pulpit at parish churches, then sell tickets outside. We also receive a generous grant from the Catenian Association, a social group for Catholic laymen."

                                                                                                   

                                                                                                  Volunteers pose for a photo with pupils

Although the students include budding economists, politicians and musicians, they do most of the work themselves.

"But we do employ local help to do the skilled work such as carpentry -- and the villagers join in too," Tintore said.

"By the time we left," Father Evans recalled, "we had grown in muscle power, shed some weight and been overwhelmed by the generosity of the villagers."

He added that Father Prodhomme has asked Netherhall to get involved in another project next year, "and we are already resolved to return."

Where Education Matters Most For Refugee Children

According to the statistics issued by UNHCR Malaysia, as of last Sept 30, there were 63,600 refugees and asylum-seekers registered with the UN Refugee Agency.

From this figure, 58,000 were from Myanmar comprising some 27,700 Chins, 15,900 Rohingyas, 3,800 Myanmar Muslims, 2,300 Kachins and the remaining being other ethnic minorities from that country.

There were also some 5,600 refugees and asylum-seekers from other countries, including 2,700 Sri Lankans, 760 Somalis, 530 Iraqis and 530 Afghans.

Based on the available statistics, 51 per cent of the refugees and asylum-seekers were men while women made up 49 per cent. There were 14,600 children below the age of 18.

UNHCR Malaysia said there were also a large number of persons of concern to the agency who remained unregistered and the figure was said to be around 30,000.

GENERATION OF BEGGARS

For Zin Oo Ko, who is from Myanmar and whose family migrated to Malaysia in the late 80s, only education would take the refugee children off the streets and prevent them from becoming a generation of beggars apart from being dragged into being part of the 'bad hats'.

Zin said there were two groups of Rohingya refugee children who took to the streets as beggars in Malaysia.

On one side, the children were in the clutches of a triad from their own ethnic group and local gangs who paid some money to the parents of the children and the children themselves before sending them out to the streets to beg.

"The other group are those who have no choice but to beg and begging is the easiest form of earning a livelihood," he said.

Zin then related the story of Abdul Rahim who is Anwar Begum's (the Rohingya refugee child mentioned in the first part of this article) older brother who had to 'beg' to support his family.

"He was actually selling religious books but this is also considered like begging because there is no fixed amount for the books. It is up to the people to give him whatever amount they thought suitable.

"The family is ashamed to allow Abdul Rahim to do this but they have no choice and the boy is also too young to get a job. The father used to go round collecting metal scraps and recycled items but later he became too ill and became bedridden," said zin.

The young boy then started to mix with the bad elements and was later picked up by the authorities. After some considerations by the relevant authorities, they decided to send him to a reform school in Kelantan.

TEACH THEM HOW TO FISH

Zin said poverty, particularly for the refugees, served not only as the breeding ground for crimes but also for the refugees to rapidly 'multiply' in their number as were ignorant of family planning.

"To me, the only way to get these people out from the clutches of poverty is through education. We can give them rice, a packet or two or give them money but money is never enough.

"We need to empower them, especially the children, teach them how to fish, not just giving them the fish so they can stand on their own two feet. What if one day I am not here anymore and also the people who are helping them?

"What would happen to them then? Would they go back to their old lives? In a way I am a bit worried," Zin said in an interview with Bernama here recently.

Zin who can also speak fluent Bahasa Malaysia said he had taken onto himself to teach some of the Rohingya children including Anwar Begum and her siblings. The students are between five and 23 years old.

VERY REWARDING

According to the 30-year-old Zin, he started teaching the children around end of 2005 until recently where he decided to temporarily stop pending getting a proper place to conduct the classes.

"I was going from house to house, teaching Bahasa Malaysia, English, some Mathematics and religious studies. The children were great, very responsive and excited to learn.

It is satisfying to see the glow on their faces as they respond to my teaching. They also love drawings.

"Anwar Begum for example. She can now read. Three years ago she knows nothing. She can also listen to the Malay news and translate them for her parents," said Zin who has a Malaysian Permanent Resident (PR) status.

Zin himself has no experience in teaching but after asking around from his friends who are teachers and lecturers, he begins to develop his own syllabus to teach the children.

"I feel privileged that I can assist them. We are not in their situation, we are the lucky ones and if we compare our lives to theirs and also our every day problems, it is nothing compared to what they are going through.

"They are practically living with no hope, no dreams, no tomorrow, nothing. I am helping them straight from my heart. My goal is, let's say out of 100 students, if I can get one into university, this is already very rewarding. This will take some time but I am willing to do this forever.

"At the same time for those who cannot study, I want to give them vocational training like that in wiring, house renovations, auto mechanics and handicrafts. This is my long-term plan," said Zin.