News chronology on Migrant & Refugee (October 2009)
1st October, 2009 (Thursday)
Responding to news reports, which claim the Burmese government is using the information listed on the new temporary Thai passports to extort money from migrants’ families, Burmese migration authorities informed the Thai government on September 24th that allegations of extortion are false.
A report released this week by Washington-based advocacy group Refugees International praised Thailand for its current refugee policy, but noted the need for progressive strategies going forward in order to deal with a possible large influx of refugees and a burgeoning number of internally displaced people should renewed fighting erupt between the Burmese junta and ethnic ceasefire groups.
minority groups, saying their needs should be assessed.
2nd October, 2009 (Friday)
? The Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ Tripartite Core Group will raise US$ 103 million for Post-Nargis Humanitarian Activities, even as it has established an “ASEAN Cooperation Fund for Emergency Relief” to respond to multiple disasters like the region has faced recently.
? Authorities in Thailand are expediting the process of providing information about national verification for Burmese migrants, even as governors in Phuket and Samut Sakorn province plan to control mobilizing migrant workers. Wanlop Pringpong, Samut Sakorn, governor said on Friday that the province plans to control the mobilizing of migrant workers in the area. It will be systematic and easy to control.
5th October, 2009 (Monday)
? Most migrants do not move from developing to developed countries, and when they do, rather than hurting host economies, they benefit them, according to a new report by the UN Development Programme (UNDP). The UNDP’s Human Development Report 2009, launched globally on 5 October in Bangkok, dispels several myths about migration, instead underlining the economic and social benefits for countries.
6th October, 2009 (Tuesday)
? Thailand will not forcibly repatriate Burmese refugees residing along the border provinces, even after the upcoming general election in Burma, the director of the Bureau of Border, Security Affairs and Defence at the National Security Council (NSC) said today.
? Children under 15 of legal migrant workers will be allowed to register for free schooling and basic medical care under a draft immigration regulation. The proposal from the government committee by migrants would likely be submitted to the Cabinet next Tuesday, Labor Minister Phaitoon Kaewthong said today.
8th September, 2009 (Thursday)
? Nearly 200 Burmese migrant workers in Malaysia have been returned to Burma following a mutual agreement between the two governments, with some reportedly detained upon arrival.
12th September, 2009 (Monday)
? Eighteen human trafficking victims were freed from captivity this week when Thai police and human rights activists raided two boats and broker houses in Samaesan, a fishing town in Sattahip Province, southeast of Bangkok. In a joint operation by the Labour Rights Promotion Network (LPN), Seafarers’ Union of Burma (SUB) and the Department of Special Investigation (DSI), two major brokers in the region and a Thai boat captain were arrested.
14th October, 2009 (Wednesday)
?Chinese police have been cracking down recently on illegal Burmese migrant workers with beatings common place and about 50 migrants arrested every day, according to sources on the Sino-Burmese border.
15th October, 2009 (Thursday)
? Nearly three months have elapsed yet only about 2,000 Burmese migrant workers have gone in for nationality verification from among an estimated one million in Thailand, according to the country’s Labour Minister.
? A total of 42 trafficked Myanmar citizens, trafficked to Thailand, have been repatriated to Myanmar’s eastern border town of Myawaddy, sources with the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement said today.
? Incidents of Thai gangs harassing and robbing Burmese migrant workers in Southern Thailand are on the rise, claim several migrant workers interviewed by IMNA.
? Forty four Burmese nationals were rounded up by Bangladesh police in raids over two days from a few places in Bandarban hill district, said an official report.
? Land confiscation by the Burmese military junta has left indigenous Kachins in food-rich Hukawng (also spelled Hugawng) valley in northern Kachin State fighting for survival, said local sources.
? Bangladeshi authorities pushed back over 80 Arakanese Rohingyas to Burma in a week along the Bangladesh-Burma border and Chittagong Hill Tracts
?According to a report titled “Starving Them Out,” released on Thursday by the Thailand-based Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG), villagers in certain areas in Papun District report that they do not expect to survive for more than a few months on this year’s rice crop, which is due to be harvested this month.
18th October, 2009 (Sunday)
? Several Mon refugees in Malaysia are eagerly waiting to be registered by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), according to the Mon Refugee Organization (MRO) based in Kuala Lumpur.
20th October, 2009 (Tuesday)
? A number of Chin people have died due to lack of medical treatment and medicines during severe famine in Paletwa Township, southern Chin State in Burma.
22nd October, 2009 (Thursday)
? The Young Mizo Association (YMA), a social organisation in India’s North-eastern state of Mizoram has urged the state government to strictly curb influx of foreigners from neighbouring countries, including Burma.
? A team of celebrated Chin singers from Burma, India and Switzerland safely arrived in the US yesterday to perform in a series of ‘long-awaited’ concerts organised as part of Global Campaign against Starvation in Chin State to raise awareness and fund for the victims of ongoing bamboo-and-rat-related food crisis in Burma’s Chin State.
26th October, 2009 (Monday)
? More than a quarter of families in Burma’s northeastern Shan state were forcibly relocated in the past year, while nine percent of families had at least one member injured by a landmine, a US health academic said. A further 24 percent of families had one member taken by Burmese troops for forced labour, according to Professor Chris Beyrer, from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
27th October, 2009 (Tuesday)
? Over 60 villages are in the process of forced relocation from two dam sites in Burma’s northern Kachin State, said the latest report released on Tuesday by a Kachin Environmental group.
28th October, 2009 (Wednesday)
? According to a Mon migrant worker source living in Mahachai, in Thailand’s Samutsakom province, hundreds of Burmese migrant workers living in the city have already returned to Burma after opting not to register for the new temporary passports that will become mandatory for migrant workers in Thailand this February.
?A four-member high level delegation of ambassadors of America and Norway in Bangladesh visited Burmese refugee camps at about 10 am to review the situation of refugees in the camps, said a refugee schoolteacher from Naryapara camp.
29th September, 2009 (Thursday)
? The growing instability in eastern Burma from ongoing military conflict is forcing thousands of ethnic people to become internally displaced persons (IDPs), according to a press release from the Thailand Burma Border Consortium (TBBC) on Thursday.
30th September, 2009 (Friday)
? In a landmark rights victory in Thailand, the Department of Transport (DoT) has announced that migrants from Burma, Laos and Cambodia, as well as a number of other minority groups, can now register ownership of vehicles and will soon be able to apply for driving licenses. The decision overturns a 15-year old discriminatory National Security Council (NSC) policy denying these rights on vague national security grounds. The positive impact will be felt by well over 1 million registered migrants and other minority persons in the country.
Responding to news reports, which claim the Burmese government is using the information listed on the new temporary Thai passports to extort money from migrants’ families, Burmese migration authorities informed the Thai government on September 24th that allegations of extortion are false.
A report released this week by Washington-based advocacy group Refugees International praised Thailand for its current refugee policy, but noted the need for progressive strategies going forward in order to deal with a possible large influx of refugees and a burgeoning number of internally displaced people should renewed fighting erupt between the Burmese junta and ethnic ceasefire groups.
minority groups, saying their needs should be assessed.
2nd October, 2009 (Friday)
? The Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ Tripartite Core Group will raise US$ 103 million for Post-Nargis Humanitarian Activities, even as it has established an “ASEAN Cooperation Fund for Emergency Relief” to respond to multiple disasters like the region has faced recently.
? Authorities in Thailand are expediting the process of providing information about national verification for Burmese migrants, even as governors in Phuket and Samut Sakorn province plan to control mobilizing migrant workers. Wanlop Pringpong, Samut Sakorn, governor said on Friday that the province plans to control the mobilizing of migrant workers in the area. It will be systematic and easy to control.
5th October, 2009 (Monday)
? Most migrants do not move from developing to developed countries, and when they do, rather than hurting host economies, they benefit them, according to a new report by the UN Development Programme (UNDP). The UNDP’s Human Development Report 2009, launched globally on 5 October in Bangkok, dispels several myths about migration, instead underlining the economic and social benefits for countries.
6th October, 2009 (Tuesday)
? Thailand will not forcibly repatriate Burmese refugees residing along the border provinces, even after the upcoming general election in Burma, the director of the Bureau of Border, Security Affairs and Defence at the National Security Council (NSC) said today.
? Children under 15 of legal migrant workers will be allowed to register for free schooling and basic medical care under a draft immigration regulation. The proposal from the government committee by migrants would likely be submitted to the Cabinet next Tuesday, Labor Minister Phaitoon Kaewthong said today.
8th September, 2009 (Thursday)
? Nearly 200 Burmese migrant workers in Malaysia have been returned to Burma following a mutual agreement between the two governments, with some reportedly detained upon arrival.
12th September, 2009 (Monday)
? Eighteen human trafficking victims were freed from captivity this week when Thai police and human rights activists raided two boats and broker houses in Samaesan, a fishing town in Sattahip Province, southeast of Bangkok. In a joint operation by the Labour Rights Promotion Network (LPN), Seafarers’ Union of Burma (SUB) and the Department of Special Investigation (DSI), two major brokers in the region and a Thai boat captain were arrested.
14th October, 2009 (Wednesday)
?Chinese police have been cracking down recently on illegal Burmese migrant workers with beatings common place and about 50 migrants arrested every day, according to sources on the Sino-Burmese border.
15th October, 2009 (Thursday)
? Nearly three months have elapsed yet only about 2,000 Burmese migrant workers have gone in for nationality verification from among an estimated one million in Thailand, according to the country’s Labour Minister.
? A total of 42 trafficked Myanmar citizens, trafficked to Thailand, have been repatriated to Myanmar’s eastern border town of Myawaddy, sources with the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement said today.
? Incidents of Thai gangs harassing and robbing Burmese migrant workers in Southern Thailand are on the rise, claim several migrant workers interviewed by IMNA.
? Forty four Burmese nationals were rounded up by Bangladesh police in raids over two days from a few places in Bandarban hill district, said an official report.
? Land confiscation by the Burmese military junta has left indigenous Kachins in food-rich Hukawng (also spelled Hugawng) valley in northern Kachin State fighting for survival, said local sources.
? Bangladeshi authorities pushed back over 80 Arakanese Rohingyas to Burma in a week along the Bangladesh-Burma border and Chittagong Hill Tracts
?According to a report titled “Starving Them Out,” released on Thursday by the Thailand-based Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG), villagers in certain areas in Papun District report that they do not expect to survive for more than a few months on this year’s rice crop, which is due to be harvested this month.
18th October, 2009 (Sunday)
? Several Mon refugees in Malaysia are eagerly waiting to be registered by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), according to the Mon Refugee Organization (MRO) based in Kuala Lumpur.
20th October, 2009 (Tuesday)
? A number of Chin people have died due to lack of medical treatment and medicines during severe famine in Paletwa Township, southern Chin State in Burma.
22nd October, 2009 (Thursday)
? The Young Mizo Association (YMA), a social organisation in India’s North-eastern state of Mizoram has urged the state government to strictly curb influx of foreigners from neighbouring countries, including Burma.
? A team of celebrated Chin singers from Burma, India and Switzerland safely arrived in the US yesterday to perform in a series of ‘long-awaited’ concerts organised as part of Global Campaign against Starvation in Chin State to raise awareness and fund for the victims of ongoing bamboo-and-rat-related food crisis in Burma’s Chin State.
26th October, 2009 (Monday)
? More than a quarter of families in Burma’s northeastern Shan state were forcibly relocated in the past year, while nine percent of families had at least one member injured by a landmine, a US health academic said. A further 24 percent of families had one member taken by Burmese troops for forced labour, according to Professor Chris Beyrer, from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
27th October, 2009 (Tuesday)
? Over 60 villages are in the process of forced relocation from two dam sites in Burma’s northern Kachin State, said the latest report released on Tuesday by a Kachin Environmental group.
28th October, 2009 (Wednesday)
? According to a Mon migrant worker source living in Mahachai, in Thailand’s Samutsakom province, hundreds of Burmese migrant workers living in the city have already returned to Burma after opting not to register for the new temporary passports that will become mandatory for migrant workers in Thailand this February.
?A four-member high level delegation of ambassadors of America and Norway in Bangladesh visited Burmese refugee camps at about 10 am to review the situation of refugees in the camps, said a refugee schoolteacher from Naryapara camp.
29th September, 2009 (Thursday)
? The growing instability in eastern Burma from ongoing military conflict is forcing thousands of ethnic people to become internally displaced persons (IDPs), according to a press release from the Thailand Burma Border Consortium (TBBC) on Thursday.
30th September, 2009 (Friday)
? In a landmark rights victory in Thailand, the Department of Transport (DoT) has announced that migrants from Burma, Laos and Cambodia, as well as a number of other minority groups, can now register ownership of vehicles and will soon be able to apply for driving licenses. The decision overturns a 15-year old discriminatory National Security Council (NSC) policy denying these rights on vague national security grounds. The positive impact will be felt by well over 1 million registered migrants and other minority persons in the country.
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