EMPOWER REFUGEES

EMPOWER REFUGEES

Be The One To Empower Refugees…

Dear readers,

If conflict threatened your family, what would you do? Stay and risk your lives? Or try to flee, and risk kidnap, rape or torture? For many refugees the choice is between the horrific or something worse. No one chooses to be a refugee.

It’s World Refugee Day on 20 June. And on this day, each year, UNHCR shines a light on the courage and perseverance of refugees.
MINOR MARRIAGES…

by Children at Risk team

This year we imagine that you are a 14 year old refugee, living in Ampang with your partner, working hard in a restaurant. Since your marriage, you have no time or money to continue school. Your sister, who is 16, lives nearby with her husband. She just had a baby and is
having a difficult time financially. You and your partner want children but you cannot afford the cost for food, clothes and school. What do you do?

In Malaysia, many refugee youths, both married and unmarried, face similar dilemmas daily. Family planning can then courage you to think about the dilemmas faced by victims of conflict or persecution and ask yourself 

“What would you do?”

To learn more about this year’s “dilemma campaign”, please visit:
 

UNHCR’s call to action page:

http://takeaction.unhcr.org
http://takeaction.unhcr.org/ or the
 

"My Life as a Refugee" app Website:
http://mylifeasarefugee.org
http://mylifeasarefugee.org/

be difficult without access to information and resources, particularly if you don’t speak local languages. Choosing how and when to have a family must be an informed decision.

There are public clinics in Malaysia that provide counselling sessions but few are tailored to refugee minors. They learn about reproductive health by word of mouth. However, most never get this information at all.

But you can help! Be the one to empower young refugees to make one of the most important decisions of their lives: when and how to have a family.
Contact us to learn how you can contribute to the reproductive health programmes run by refugees.

“Young girls may endure misery as a result of early marriage and the number of those who would seek help, if they thought it existed, is impossible to calculate. Until more is known about their situation there can be no reliable estimates of the scale of their predicament, or of the social damage that is carried forward in the upbringing they give to their own children..”

UNICEF
(Innocenti Digest no. 7)

Kaoprise Bath & Spa: Livelihood Project

by Tanda Htun

Refugee women face the same day to day challenges as any other women, but added to that is the difficulties of living as a refugee in Malaysia.

The Kaoprise Bath & Spa livelihood project, founded by the Mon women refugees from Myanmar, aims to empower Mon women to get income in a safe environment, provide learning opportunities and gain skills to be independent.

Kaoprise is doing a tremendous job empowering the women and helping ease their lives while they are in Malaysia. Many Kaoprise women earn RM500 every month from making and packaging products like soap and coconut oil Kaoprise center. Kaoprise focuses on natural and organic ingredients that are safe and its fair trade philosophy empower women.

The women are not just earning an income. They also learn business and language skills that build their self- confidence. Kaoprise also empowers women to become leaders.

With their newly-acquired leadership skills, the women participate in community activities like organizing traditional festivals, which helps to strengthen the solidarity and empower the community as a whole.

Like Eternal Blooming Flowers,
Never Give Up!

by SPF Team

Living in a Malaysia as a refugee is not easy. It is extremely difficult for refugee women to get a decently paying job. The school “N WAI PAN FLORIST” organized by the Kachin refugees group from Myanmar offers basic skills of flower arrangement to refugee women.

 The project is funded by the UNHCR SPF programme.

The second batch of 8 students learns floral arrangement twice a week and their beautiful flowers decorate their churches, weddings and community activities.

“N WAI PAN means eternal blooming flowers in our language. Through this training, I want students to learn not only floral arrangement skills, but also have more confidence. No matter how hard their life is, I want them to live with a hope for the future, like these beautiful flowers always blooming to the sun” said Ahsamee, the coordinator.

Now, her dream is to establish an advanced class to offer higher skills for students. “I believe women are the one who create the world. Through acquiring skills, women can be more confident and independent. I want to create more opportunities for women refugees so that they themselves can bloom in their lives, like flowers,” said Ahsamee.

Social Protection Fund, UNHCR

Known as SPF, we started in July 2009. Our aim is to
assist and promote self help and independence
among the refugee communities in Malaysia. As of
Feb 2012, we have provided grants to 261 community
projects that are located in Penang, Perak, Selangor,
Kuala Lumpur, Terengganu, Pahang, Negri Sembilan
and Johor.

The projects range from income generating projects,
skills training (computer, tailoring and handicraft) and
community services and development (shelter, youth
club and peaceful co-existence). These projects
benefit about 35,000 people.

We seek your support to directly sponsor some of the
existing projects or new projects either financially or in
kind. For more information, contact us at:

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Tel: 03-2141 1322 (ext 209 @ 210)
Website: www.unhcr.org.my or
http://spfunhcr.wordpress.com or

sign up to volunteer at
www.shiftboard.com/unhcrmalaysia

Refugees continue to face uncertain future in our region — Gerhard Hoffstaedter

JUNE 26 — World Refugee Day yearly draws attention to the plight of over 40 million people who are either refugees, internally displaced or seeking asylum and the 800,000, who are newly displaced across borders in 2011. This global population almost twice the size of Australia’s population demands more efforts to support them.

Globally the main source countries of refugees and asylum seekers are Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia, together accounting for over five million according to the just released UNHCR Global Trends Report 2011. Regionally Myanmar/Burma remains the largest issue with hundreds of thousands residing in regional neighbouring countries such as Thailand, Bangladesh, India and Malaysia.

Australia has been a major resettlement country for our regional neighbours for a long time, perhaps most visibly starting with the resettlement of Vietnamese refugees n the 1980s. However, the current yearly scheduled intake of around 13,750 refugees (2010-2011 figures are 13,799) is paltry compared to most other Western industrialised nations. Alone UNHCR resettlement figures show Australia doing its bit with over 9,200 places in 2011 mainly from regional UNHCR offices.

The Bali Process and other regional instruments have hitherto been mainly deployed to shore up Australian efforts to keep asylum seekers and irregular migrants at bay, i.e. trapped within the borders of our neighbours. Yet, a regional solution to what amounts to a regional refugee crisis is paramount.

Such a regional solution will invariably involve sharing the burden of our neighbours and not just the financial burdens. This will involve increasing the yearly intake for resettlement from the region, particularly Malaysia, in exchange for tighter and more coordinated border security efforts with especially Indonesia.

Even though the ‘swap deal’ with Malaysia did not come to fruition, the attention it has cast upon the situation for refugees and asylum seekers there has to be maintained. Malaysia is home to an ever-increasing population of forcibly displaced people, most are from Myanmar/Burma. Aung San Suu Kyi has aptly warned of too much optimism about the political situation in her home and Australia’s move to lift its sanctions regime is unduly rewarding the Myanmar government for minor reform steps.

Thousands continue to flee ethnic and religious tensions, suppression, forced labour and a myriad of other human rights abuses by the Burmese military and a systematic process of marginalisation of ethnic groups, especially Christian groups such as the Chin, Kachin and Karen peoples.

Many of them come to Malaysia via Thailand to seek protection. However, “The Search: Protection Space in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, The Philippines and Cambodia in Practice,” a report released by the Jesuit Refugee Services Asia-Pacific shows that protection spaces in Southeast Asia are insufficient, forcing many to keep moving in search for more adequate and safer refuge.

Malaysia now houses one of the largest urban refugee populations in the region. Some figures place as many as 60,000 in the sprawling city of Kuala Lumpur alone. Many Myanmar minority ethnic groups such as the Chin, a Christian group from Chin state in Northwest Myanmar/Burma, are waiting patiently to be registered by the UNHCR in Kuala Lumpur. This is the most pressing issue for asylum seekers in Malaysia and the region, as the UNHCR card they receive will give them some recognition and protection from the police and immigration officials.

Registration was suspended in early 2010 and funds are urgently needed for the UNHCR and its community partners to resume the mammoth task of registering tens of thousands of asylum seekers in Malaysia alone. Registration is just a first step, but an indispensible one, for it gives refugees recognition and freedom of movement. Those without cards risk arrest and detention, some do not leave the house out of fear.

Once they are registered they have another long wait ahead of them for resettlement to a third country, mostly the United States of America, some European countries and Australia. While some can achieve this transition and resettlement within three years, many have waited a lot longer. Some have been in Malaysia for over 10 years. In this time they have to hold down jobs to survive, some have married and started families — all long for a future in which they can take their destiny in their own hands.

In the current limbo they inhabit they face exploitation, harassment and the challenges of everyday life in a country that does not want them and barely tolerates their existence. Yet, things used to be even worse. Detention, whipping for immigration offences and raids by immigration officials have all decreased and there is a cautionary sense of calm amongst some refugee communities.

A critical US report on its human rights situation and the ‘Australia-Malaysia swap deal’ caused the Malaysian government to reconsider its treatment of refugees and asylum seekers. With concerted Australian support and pressure on the Malaysian government and funding of strategic partners such as the UNHCR and community and civil society partners asylum seekers can get better protection. Now is the time to build on the positive improvements and keep the attention and resources focused on those who need it most — refugees and asylum seekers in our region. — Anthropolitics.wordpress.com

Source : http://www.themalaysianinsider.com

HRW frets over Myanmar's ethnic strife

Published By United Press International

BANGKOK, June 26 (UPI) -- Members of an ethnic group from Myanmar are at risk of being returned to Myanmar from China where they face an uncertain future, Human Rights Watch said.

Sophie Richardson, director of Chinese policy at Human Rights Watch, called on Beijing to offer temporary protection to Kachin refugees in China's southern Yunnan province.

"China has no legitimate reason to push them back to Burma (known also as Myanmar) or to leave them without food and shelter," she said in a statement from neighboring Thailand.

Human Rights Watch, in a 68-page report, said as many as 10,000 Kachin refugees have fled conflict and abuses in Myanmar since June 2011.

Kachin rebels and other ethnic groups are battling for more self-rule. Myanmar's President Thein Sein has tried to broker peace agreements with ethnic rebels but talks with the Kachin group have so far failed.

Clashes in Kachin state, in northern Myanmar, broke out in April, leaving at least 31 people dead. Ethnic conflict in the region broke out last year for the first time since a peace deal was brokered in 1994.

Myanmar has earned praise from members of the international community for embracing democratic reform. Some countries who've eased sanctions on Myanmar said a number of human rights concerns remain, however.

China/Burma: Kachin Refugees Lack Aid, Face Abuses

(Bangkok) – Several thousand ethnic Kachin refugees from Burma are isolated in Yunnan, China, where they are at risk of return to a conflict zone and lack needed humanitarian aid. The Chinese government should immediately provide temporary protection and allow United Nations and humanitarian agencies unhindered access to Kachin refugees in Yunnan who have fled wartime abuses in Burma.

“The Chinese government has generally tolerated Kachin refugees staying in Yunnan, but now needs to meet its international legal obligations to ensure refugees are not returned and that their basic needs are met,” said Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch. “China has no legitimate reason to push them back to Burma or to leave them without food and shelter.”

The 68-page report, “Isolated in Yunnan: Kachin Refugees from Burma in China’s Yunnan Province,” describes how at least 7,000 to 10,000 ethnic Kachin refugees have fled war and abuses in Burma since June 2011, seeking refuge in southwestern China. The report is based on more than 100 interviews with refugees, displaced persons in Burma, victims of abuses, relief workers, and others.

The Kachin refugees in Yunnan described to Human Rights Watch their lack of adequate shelter, food, potable water, sanitation, and basic health care. Most children have no access to schools. In search of income, adults seek day labor and are vulnerable to exploitation by local employers. Other Kachin refugees have been subject to arbitrary roadside drug testing, arbitrary fines, and prolonged and abusive detention by the Chinese authorities, all without due process or judicial oversight. In addition, some refugees have been refused entry at the border, and local Chinese officials, on the orders of the central authorities, have forced others back to conflict areas in Burma.

In June 2011, hostilities broke out in northern Burma between the Burmese army and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) near a Chinese-led hydropower dam in Kachin State. The fighting ended a 17-year ceasefire agreement and led to the displacement of an estimated 75,000 Kachin. Displaced civilians fled to KIA or government-controlled territory in Burma and into China.

While the Chinese central government and Yunnan provincial authorities have generally allowed Kachin refugees to enter and stay in China since June 2011, Human Rights Watch documented two instances, involving an estimated 300 people, of Chinese authorities ordering Kachin refugees to return to Burma. Chinese authorities have also rejected Kachin asylum seekers at the border, forcing their return to the conflict zone.

The forced returns put the refugees at grave risk and created a pervasive fear of forced return among the Kachin refugees who remain in Yunnan. A 25-year-old refugee in Yunnan told Human Rights Watch, “I don’t feel secure here at all because we are still on the border and too close to the Burma side. I worry as the fighting continues, if the Chinese don’t accept us, where will we go? Where can we live?”

China is a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol as well as other international human rights treaties that provide protections for refugees and asylum seekers. The Refugee Convention prohibits the forced return “in any manner whatsoever” of refugees to places where their “life or freedom” would be threatened on account of their “race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social or political opinion." Nonrefoulement is the cornerstone of refugee protection and is foundational to China’s legal obligations toward refugees.

“The Chinese government is not only legally obligated, but fully capable of temporarily protecting Kachin refugees and meeting their basic needs,” Richardson said.

While displaced Kachin in Burma have received a limited amount of aid from local and international agencies, including from three UN convoys between March and June 2012, the Chinese government has not itself provided any assistance to the Kachin refugees in Yunnan, nor has it allowed the UN High Commissioner for Refugees or other major humanitarian organizations access to this population. The only assistance provided has come from private and local Kachin aid networks operating in Yunnan and Kachin State.

While refugees expressed gratitude for this assistance, it has been inadequate to meet their needs. A Kachin woman, 51, explained her difficulty providing food for her family: “As soon as we arrived [in China] there was no food so we just shared the little we had,” she told Human Rights Watch. “The war will last a long time and make things very difficult for us. We are far away from the village and we cannot get food. Living here is a very difficult situation.”

Some refugees described returning to the conflict zone in Burma because of inadequate humanitarian support in Yunnan. A 33-year-old Kachin woman said she felt compelled to return to her home in Kachin State ­– the site of intense fighting – because of the lack of food to feed her family in Yunnan: “What money we had brought [to Yunnan], we had already spent, and we were at a relative’s house and it is not good to stay a long time. It was difficult, so we had to come back to Burma.”

Human Rights Watch said that concerned governments should support local organizations that are currently providing aid to the refugee population, and should urgently press Chinese authorities to provide unfettered access to the refugees.

Kachin refugees in Yunnan have been subjected to arbitrary drug testing, which in some instances has led to their being sent to abusive “rehabilitation centers.” Every male refugee interviewed by Human Rights Watch was randomly tested for drug use by local authorities, in some cases repeatedly over time, citing it as their second most troublesome difficulty in Yunnan after securing shelter. Upon submitting to humiliating roadside urine tests, refugees who are told they test positive for illegal drug use are given the option to pay unaffordable cash fines on the spot or face incarceration for two years, beginning that day. Two Kachin men interviewed by Human Rights Watch were detained, tested, and sentenced to two years in an abusive Rehabilitation Through Labor center. In detention, they were forced to work in textiles and cutting jade without compensation, and they were subject to cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.

“Many Kachin refugees have already endured terrible abuses and war in Burma, only to settle into a life of dire struggle in Yunnan,” Richardson said. “Until it is safe for the Kachin to return home, the Chinese government has a responsibility to ensure their safety and well-being.”

Selected accounts from “Isolated in Yunnan”
“After they said the villagers had to return to Burma, the soldiers came again and checked to make sure the villagers left. We replied by saying they went back.... Now, everyone has gone back to Burma. Mostly they went back to the village and some went back to the [displaced persons] camps in Burma. It was after two or three days that the soldiers returned to make sure the villagers were going back. The villagers first arrived June 12, [2011,] and the Chinese allowed us to support them until June 15. That is when they came and said they had to return.”
– Chinese village head, Yunnan Province, China, August 2011

“When we go for a bath in the river, the Chinese authorities always harass us. There is a water-well at the [camp] but there are many people and it’s very crowded, so we have to go to the river to take a bath, and when we go the Chinese authorities always stop us and ask us questions. And they always follow us. They follow behind us and they yell things at us. So we do not feel very secure.”
– Kachin refugee, 19, Yunnan Province, China, November 2011

“Our health has changed since we fled. Now we live in a group, side by side, so sicknesses spread quickly. I never had health problems before, but now I always feel weak and tired, and something is wrong with my stomach. I had to go to the doctor but I couldn’t go to the hospital because I don’t have money.... If one child gets sick, every child gets sick, and we don’t have any medicines. The children have diarrhea and colds constantly.”
– Kachin refugee, farmer, Yunnan Province, China, November 2011

“I was tested on August 5, 2011 on the street near the border. They asked me, ‘Where are you from?’ I said I was from Burma. One person was wearing a police uniform, but there were about 10 people total. They had one car and one motorbike. They asked me if I was using drugs. I said no, I wasn’t. They made me pee in a small cup in front of them, and then they put something in the cup and said, ‘This says you use drugs.’ Then they said, ‘You have to eradicate the drugs from yourself. You will go to prison.’ Then they sent me to prison.”
– Kachin refugee, 21, Yunnan Province, China, November 2011

“We are facing problems in supporting the needs of the refugees. We are nearly out of money to buy food and medicine.... We have supported them for nine months already with the support of the Kachin community, some communities from Burma, and faith groups. Over the last nine months, we got very limited funds from INGOs [international nongovernmental organizations]. Now local people have limited money to support them again.”
– Kachin aid worker in Yunnan Province, China, March 2012

Source : http://www.hrw.org/news

Australia rescues 123 refugees from capsized vessel

At least 123 people were rescued on Wednesday after a boat carrying asylum seekers capsized some 100 nautical miles north of Australia's Christmas Island. Up to 90 people died last week when another vessel went down in the same area.

By News Wires (text)

 

AFP - Rescuers plucked 123 people from the ocean Wednesday after an asylum-seeker boat sank en route to Australia, barely a week after another vessel went down in the same area, killing up to 90.
The rickety ship capsized 107 nautical miles north of Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean and then sank, an Australian Maritime Safety Authority spokeswoman said.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard said between 123 and 133 people were on board, revised down from earlier estimates of 150.
"As we speak my best advice is that 123 people have been rescued," she told parliament as the pressure was turned up on Australian politicians to break their deadlock on how to deal with the arrival of asylum-seekers.
The incident comes just days after another boat with around 200 people on board went down in the Indian Ocean as it made its way to Australia.
Rescuers managed to save 110 people and 17 bodies were recovered from Thursday's capsize, but no other survivors have been found.
Three merchant vessels, including the MV Bison Express, a Philippines-flagged livestock carrier, were on the scene of Wednesday's disaster, which happened in Indonesian waters.
AMSA said two Australian navy ships and a spotter aircraft capable of dropping liferaft were also helping with the rescue effort in conditions described as "fair, not ideal".
In a statement, Australian Customs and Border Protection said police received a satellite phone call early Wednesday from the vessel.
AMSA "initiated an immediate response to the report and continues to coordinate the search and rescue effort".
Details were passed to the Indonesian search and rescue authority Basarnas, which said it received a report that the generator was broken and the boat was taking on water.
A photo from the MV Bison posted on the AMSA website showed a small, basic-looking boat crowded with people on its decks, apparently taken before it capsized.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation said most of the passengers were believed to be Afghans and there were women and children on board, though this could not be confirmed.
The accident is the latest in a series of refugee boat disasters in recent years, as unseaworthy, overloaded vessels packed with desperate migrants struggle to reach Australia.
Most boats originate in Indonesia, but there has been a recent spike in attempts from Sri Lanka.
Though they come in relatively small numbers by global standards, asylum-seekers are a sensitive political issue in Australia, dominating 2010 elections due to a record 6,555 arrivals.
Both sides of Australian politics support offshore processing of asylum-seekers but differ on where it should be conducted.
Canberra clinched a deal last year to send 800 boatpeople to Malaysia in exchange for 4,000 of that country's registered refugees in a bid to deter people-smugglers from the dangerous maritime voyage to Australia.
But Gillard's fragile coalition government was unable to pass the required legislation through parliament without the support of the opposition, amid concerns Malaysia was not a signatory to UN refugee conventions.
Opposition leader Tony Abbott, who supports processing on the Pacific island of Nauru and turning boats back when possible, again ruled out the Malaysian solution Wednesday.
In response, Gillard pushed for a private members bill by independent MP Rob Oakeshott which would allow an immigration minister to designate any nation as an "offshore assessment country" if it was party to the Bali Process.
The Bali Process is a regional cooperative framework for dealing with asylum-seekers involving more than 40 countries.
Gillard offered, as a gesture of compromise, to re-open a detention centre on Nauru while pressing ahead with her Malaysia deal if the opposition agreed to vote for the Oakeshott bill.

Source : http://www.france24.com

Malaysia “surprised” by Australia criticism on refugee issues

Bikya Masr Staff | 28 June 2012 

 

Refugees being helped onto boat by Australian coast guard.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is surprised by the response from Australia over the recent refugee crisis following the sinking of a boat near Christmas Island left as many as 100 people dead.

In an interview with The Australian Online, Malaysia’s High Commissioner Salman Ahmad said he was “surprised” by the opposition over their criticism of the Southeast Asian country’s refugee policy.

The coalition opposes Labor’s Malaysian Solution for asylum-seekers because the country has not signed the UN refugee convention.

“Even though it’s not legally binding on us to be treating refugees because we’re not a signatory (to the UN refugee convention), we have done the best we can,” said Ahmad.

“They know very well how we treat them when they come to our shores.”

He said the UN refugee agency operating in Malaysia attends to the needs of an estimated 96,000 refugees living in the country.

It comes as Australia’s Opposition lashed out at Malaysia over its treatment of refugees as talks with Kuala Lumpur continue over new refugee policies following the incident.

Opposition treasury spokesman Joe Hockey told Sky News that “the reason why Malaysia is being used is because it is a very harsh and unforgiving environment for human beings.”

Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said he had no problem with Malaysia or its government, but the opposition would not agree to process asylum-seekers there because it had not signed the UN refugee convention.

“Malaysia has the arrangements they have in place as a sovereign country dealing with the issues as they see them and they have every right to do that,” he said.

“My argument is not with Malaysia. My argument is with the government that wants to abolish offshore processing protections in the Migration Act.”

Source : http://www.bikyamasr.com

Aung San Suu Kyi's UK visit

Monday, June 25, 2012

 

Aung San Suu Kyi in Norway where she receives her Nobel Prize, 21 years after she was awarded it.Last week, Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi visited the UK for four days. Having once lived in the UK, she had not been able to travel here for 24 years as she was confined to house arrest by the Burmese regime.
Earlier last week she visited Norway, where she was presented with her Nobel Peace Prize, 21 years after it was awarded to her in 1991.
Speaking at the London School of Economics, Ms Suu Kyi highlighted that for true reform to take place the rule of law should be applied to all those responsible for the atrocities of the past two decades and more. Quoting Bishop Desmond Tutu from South Africa, she said: "Time will not heal, there has to be acknowledgement".
She also stressed that foreign investors should carefully consider the impact their investments may have on the Burmese people. This warning comes after sanctions were lifted and foreign investment was once again allowed in Burma few months ago. Much money is to be made in the country, but who will benefit and who will be left behind?
Ms Suu Kyi reminded us about the difficulties faced by Burmese refugees on the Thai-Burma border. Suu Kyi visited the Mae La camp (near Mae Sot where IRT supports projects), Thailand, in early June. There are more than 140,000 Burmese refugees, mostly ethnic Karen, living in 10 camps along the 1,800km Thai-Burmese border.
IRT is thrilled about the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and looks forward to the positive change we hope this will bring to the future of Burma. However, we realise that the road ahead is a long one and we intend to keep on supporting the Burmese refugees in Thailand all the way.
Want to know more about IRT's involvement with refugee work in Thailand? Read more about our work in Thailand. We are also delighted to be taking part in the London 10K 2012 which we have dedicated to our Thailand projects. This means that every penny raised by our runners will go to the Burmese refugees in our Thailand projects.


Source : http://www.irt.org.uk

Thai school builds low-impact bamboo dorms to shelter refugee children

The dorms were designed for rapid construction using local materials and techniques in order to house child refugees from bordering Burma (Photo: Line Ramstad/Allyse Pulliam)

By James Holloway

The Children Development Center in the Thai town of Mae Sot recently completed the last of four low-impact bamboo and timber dormitories designed to provide temporary shelter for up to 100 children. The dorms were designed for rapid construction using local materials and techniques in order to house child refugees from bordering Burma.

The first of four 72-sq m (775-sq ft) dormitories was completed within four weeks of its April 2012 commencement. The architects behind the project, Albert Olmo, Jan Glasmeier and Line Ramstad, decided from the outset that the buildings should be made from materials that could be either reused or resold.

The decision to design with local traditional construction methods in mind was made in order to make future maintenance of the buildings easy. It was also decided that no one dorm should sleep more than 25 to prevent crowding.

It should be stressed that these dorms provide temporary accommodation. In all the Child Development Center, which is run by the Mae Tao Clinic, is home to more than 500 refugee and ethnic minority children, and in January enrolled 1141 new students, a rise of 4 percent from the previous year. The increase has been attributed to the outbreak of further conflict in Burma in the closing months of 2010.

The cost of the dormitories (€1700, or US$2100, each) was met by the Embassy of Luxembourg in Bangkok and built by G'yaw G'yaw, a Thai construction company founded by Norwegian architect Line Ramstad that specializes in community buildings for Karen refugees in Thailand.

Source : http://www.gizmag.com

China has forced refugees back to Myanmar conflict zone - group

By Ben Blanchard

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese authorities have forced back into Myanmar some ethnic Kachin refugees who have fled across the border to escape civil war, and China is denying basic care to many who remain, a human rights group said on Tuesday.

Myanmar's government is in talks with autonomy-seeking Kachin rebels, and more than a dozen other ethnic minority rebel groups, to try to end all its decades-old conflicts.

But despite several rounds of negotiations, the conflict in Myanmar's northernmost Kachin state has not ended.

The fighting, which flared up in the middle of 2011 after a 17-year truce, has pushed up to 10,000 people to seek refuge across the border in the south-western Chinese province of Yunnan.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said many of these people had little access to proper sanitation, shelter, healthcare or schools for their children.

Others had been detained, refused entry to China or even forced back into the conflict zone in their country, also known as Burma, the rights group said in a report.

"The Chinese government has generally tolerated Kachin refugees staying in Yunnan, but now needs to meet its international legal obligations to ensure refugees are not returned and that their basic needs are met," said Sophie Richardson, the group's China director.

"China has no legitimate reason to push them back to Burma or to leave them without food and shelter."

Human Rights Watch said it had documented two cases involving some 300 people who were ordered to return to Myanmar, and others who were sent back into the conflict zone after being turned away at the border.

China's Foreign Ministry denied the accusations, and said the people were not refugees.

"After the clashes abated they went back to Myanmar. While here, China provided help to them on humanitarian considerations," ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a regular news briefing.

UNSTABLE NEIGHBOUR

A Yunnan province official said in March that authorities had been providing humanitarian help to the displaced and had helped mediate talks between the rebels and Myanmar's government.

While China has strong business and trade ties with Myanmar, it has long looked with wariness at its poor and unstable southern neighbour, and has repeatedly called on the country to ensure stability along their vast and remote border.

Chinese media on Tuesday cited police minister Meng Jianzhu as saying poppy cultivation in northern Myanmar had bounced back and that drugs were flooding into China from that part of the world, with heroin seizures up 55 percent in 2011 compared with the previous year.

Diplomats say the conflict in Kachin state is one of the biggest tests for Myanmar's new civilian government's reform effort.

As a signatory to various international conventions on refugees, China has an obligation to properly protect refugees, but it has not even allowed in the United Nations or international aid groups, Human Rights Watch added.

"Many Kachin refugees have already endured terrible abuses and war in Burma, only to settle into a life of dire struggle in Yunnan," Richardson said.

"Until it is safe for the Kachin to return home, the Chinese government has a responsibility to ensure their safety and well-being."

(Editing by Robert Birsel)

TheStarOnline

Australia MPs warned of more refugee deaths

SYDNEY: Australian politicians were warned Friday of more asylum-seeker boat deaths while parliament goes on a six-week winter break after they failed to find a compromise on the divisive issue.

Parliament broke up Thursday after Senate opposition and Greens lawmakers rejected a private member's bill to send boatpeople offshore for processing, leaving the issue at a stalemate following a spate of deadly incidents.

Independent MP Andrew Wilkie said parliamentarians should not be going into recess when such an important matter remained unresolved.

"We should be sitting today, we should have continued sitting last night, we should sit next week, we should sit until we get a solution," he told state broadcaster ABC.

"I think there is every chance in the world that more people will die during this six-week recess," he said.

The bill was introduced after two crowded asylum-seeker boats sank off the remote Australian territory of Christmas Island, near Indonesia, over the past week.

In the first incident, 110 people were saved and an estimated 90 drowned while the sinking of a second boat on Wednesday left four dead, with 130 rescued.

With few legislative options left, Prime Minister Julia Gillard commissioned an expert review led by former defence force chief Angus Houston to look at the policy with "fresh eyes".

She promised to take on board whatever it suggested, but would not commit to dropping her controversial Malaysia people-swap plan if doing so was recommended.

Opposition leader Tony Abbott described her move as a pointless exercise.

"This committee is not a solution. This is outsourcing the prime ministership," he said as politicians began leaving Canberra for their constituencies.

Since January a stream of asylum-seekers have attempted to reach Australia by boat, with the latest vessel carrying 44 passengers intercepted overnight taking the 2012 total to 68 boats with 5,046 on board.

Most come from Indonesia on unseaworthy vessels.

The government wants to send them to Malaysia for processing, but the opposition refuses to agree, arguing Kuala Lumpur is not a signatory to UN refugee conventions.

Abbott favours re-opening a detention centre on the Pacific island of Nauru and turning boats back where possible. The left-leaning Greens, on whom the government relies for its rule, are opposed to any offshore processing. - AFP

Source : TheStar

Myanmar tells Suu Kyi not to call country 'Burma'

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Authorities in Myanmar have told opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi that she must refer to the Southeast Asian nation by its official name, and not "Burma."

The country's former military rulers changed the nation's name in English from Burma to Myanmar in 1989, but opponents and exile groups have persisted in referring to the country as Burma as a sign of protest and defiance.

Myanmar's election commission issued the complaint in the state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper on Friday, saying Suu Kyi had referred to the country as Burma during her landmark trips to Thailand and Europe.

The commission supervises laws dealing with political parties.

Suu Kyi became a lawmaker after her party won dozens of parliament seats in April.

Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi shakes hands with supporters from her vehicle during a visit to the Mae La refugee camp June 2, 2012 in the western province of Tak, Thailand. The camp is situated along the Burma-Thailand border and is home to around 45,000 mainly ethnic Karen people. The visit to Thailand is her first trip outside of Burma in 24 years where she also attended the World Economic Forum on East Asia. She was under house arrest for 15 years before being released in November 2010. (Paula Bronstein, Getty Images)

Myanmar's Kachin Refugees in China in Need

Kachin grandmother Mui Hpu Kaw with two of her seven grandchildren inside the La Ying refugee camp in China's Yunnan province. There are more than 7,000 Kachin displaced in China. (IRIN Photo)

 

Yunnan Province, China. A sea of mud that was once a pathway leads up to Mui Hpu Kaw’s bamboo hut in the refugee camp of La Ying, in China’s Yunnan Province, near the Burmese border. Heavy rain pelts down on the plastic sheeting that serves as a roof of the temporary shelter while she boils a pot of rice on an open fire for her seven grandchildren.

“I was living in a displaced persons camp on the Kachin side of the border after our village was attacked by the Burmese soldiers last year,” said the 66-year old Kachin grandmother. “But my son warned me that the Burmese troops were advancing on the camp so we fled across the border.” Her family is among 2,000 displaced Kachin living in the La Ying camp.

Four of Mui Hpu Kaw’s sons are Kachin Independence Army (KIA) soldiers who have been fighting against Burmese government troops across the border in Kachin State since a 17-year-old ceasefire collapsed between the two sides in June 2011. The KIA has been fighting for greater autonomy from Myanmar’s central government for the past six decades

According to recent figures released by the IDPs and Refugees Relief Committee (IRRC), based in Laiza, a large town in Kachin State, there are currently nine official Kachin refugee camps in China housing 7,097 people. Another 3,000 Kachin civilians are staying with relatives or in unofficial temporary settlements near the Chinese border, the IRRC says.

This is in addition to the more than 62,000 people displaced within Myanmar, including 24,000 in government-controlled areas, and close to 40,000 in KIA-controlled areas, the UN estimates.

“Kachin Refugees from Burma in China’s Yunnan Province” are “isolated,” said a report released by Human Rights Watch (HRW) on June 26, and the lack of access to camps in China by international NGOs is creating severe shortages of food and medical supplies.

“Many of the refugees have been in China for more than a year and their resources are running out. We are sliding into a humanitarian crisis for these people,” the deputy director of HRW’s Asia division, Phil Robertson, told IRIN.

“It’s time for China to step up and recognize that it has obligations, after ratifying the refugee convention and its protocol, to not only protect refugees but also to assist and enable others, like the UNHCR [the UN Refugee Agency] to assist them,” Robertson said.

May Li Aung, of the Wun Pawng Ninghtoi (WPN), an umbrella group of eight Kachin aid agencies working with displaced civilians on both sides of the border, noted that “Although we still have some basic food supplies like rice and cooking oil, our complimentary foods that are essential in maintaining the health of the youngsters and the old people are no longer available.”

Since the start of the conflict, most of the food and medical supplies in KIA-controlled areas have been donated by local religious groups, and the Kachin Independence Organization, the political wing of the KIA.

Assistance to government-controlled areas is more readily available, but the UN still has only limited access to KIA-controlled areas.

Kouzui Hayashi, 38, a former monk, now an aid worker for a Japanese Buddhist group, has visited several camps on the Chinese side of the border. “Many of the refugees have friends and relatives to support them and treat them like family,” he noted.

“However, there is a need for more nurses. Right now, there are very few and they are not experienced. If serious cases happen they have to go to neighboring towns where there is a proper hospital,” said Hayashi. In La Ying camp, La Bang Naw Tarong, 46, now boils his water for a long time after a serious bout of diarrhoea in May.

Further along the path from his hut, volunteer workers hammer together a new addition to the camp. “We all ran from different locations and have our children with us. That’s why we have to build schools for kindergarten kids, and we have to build a home for the teachers who come to teach our children,” said Naw Tarong. “I just want to go home, but the soldiers say it is too dangerous.”

As the displaced continue to live in dire conditions, human rights groups are calling on Beijing to immediately provide temporary protection and allow the United Nations and humanitarian agencies unhindered access to Kachin refugees in Yunnan.

“I think that the key bilateral partners in China — the EU [European Union], the US, Canada, Australia, others — also need to get behind the UNHCR [UN Refugee Agency], and support them politically by saying to China that they really need the UNHCR down there [in Yunnan]”, said HRW’s Robertson. “But [they should] also be prepared to provide concrete financial support for humanitarian assistance.”

IRIN http://www.thejakartaglobe.com

Giving refugees opportunities

IN CONJUNCTION with World Refugees Day 2012, the Malaysian Red Crescent Society (MRCS) Seremban chapter volunteers paid a visit to 22 Myanmar refugees living at a low- cost flat in Seremban town.

They were there to distribute donations collected from the public.

Prior to the visit, MRCS Seremban pledged to donate foodstuff, clothing, exercise books and stationery.

“The public has been generous. We have received toiletries like shampoo, soap, toothpaste and toothbrush, which are essential for the refugees. Many have donated exercise books, stationery and tidbits for the children,” said MRCS Seremban youth officer Albert Ling Chuan Kai, 23.

Helping them out: The Myanmar refugees with Ling (squatting front left).

According to Ling, most of the refugee children did not receive formal education due to legal reasons.

“The fact that these children are barred from attending school is so heartbreaking. They could grow up being the next Aung San Suu Kyi, making positive changes to the world, if given the right opportunities,” he added.

The Myanmar refugees are still in need of footwear, diapers, baby powder and milk.

MRCS Seremban hopes more people will come forward to volunteer to teach or just spend time with the children.

Besides the visit, MRCS Seremban Chapter also organised a quiz on International Humanitarian Law (IHL) for its secondary school members.

The objective of the quiz was to encourage youngsters to learn more about law pertaining to human rights applicable during war.

Around 32 MRCS youth members from eight schools took part and SMK King George V emerged the district champion.

Participant Jegadeshwaran Gandhi, 16, who was part of the winning team, managed to answer all the questions correctly.

Fellow participant, Chiang Hui Xing, 17, from SMK Dato’ Mohd Said Nilai said that in preparation for the quiz, she learnt about the origins of IHL.

She also admires Jean Henry Dunant, the founding father of Red Cross and the first Nobel Peace Prize winner who strived hard to protect human rights. 

Source : TheStarOnline

Two Refugees from Burma Settle in Nelson

 

Hsa Moo, now a new resident of Nelson, in her role as a journalist in a refugee camp on the Thailand-Burma border, interviews two people from the Karen ethnic group who have just fled from their home in fear of the Burmese army.

Two women from a refugee camp on the Thailand-Burma border are now living in Nelson after having been granted refugee status by the Canadian government. The Nelson Refugee Committee is sponsoring them here and is committed to supporting the two women for one year. 

The refugees belong to the Karen ethnic indigenous group that has been persecuted and harassed by Burma’s military government for decades.

“They have spent their lives behind barbed wire in a refugee camp on the Burma-Thailand border,” says Randy Janzen, the Secretary-Treasurer of the Refugee Committee. “They are people without citizenship. It is illegal for them to leave the refugee camp because they are not recognized as Burmese or Thai.”

The Nelson Refugee Committee has found an apartment for the two women, and is assisting them daily in their adjustment to all aspects of life in Canada.

More detail on the background to their stay in Nelson can be found in a previous story posted at The Nelson Daily on March 18, 2012.

Htoo Paw, in her late 20s, was born in Burma. Her village was burned in 2000 and has been living in a refugee camp ever since. She has a good level of education, having completed high school and a special personal development course that taught English, computer literacy, and life skills. Her work experience includes teaching, childcare, care for the elderly and care for individuals with special needs.

Hsa Moo was born and raised in the camp more than 25 years ago. She is vice-president and programmer for the Karen Student Networking Group, is the producer of the Karen language Radio Free Asia in Mae La Oo Refugee Camp and is working as a social worker in her camp village. Hsa Moo has completed high school and a leadership and management course, and has recently received a diploma from the Australia Catholic University.

The two had been in Nelson just eight days when they sat down with The Nelson Daily to tell their story.

How did you end up living in a refugee camp?

Htoo Paw: When I lived in Burma, my village was in the conflict area, and the Burmese troops came into the village and arrested people and they tortured them. I was afraid—we knew that when the troops came we were going to be in danger.  I did not think this was wrong, I thought it was normal life. They would grab anyone they could get and ask them to go with them to carry their things or their ammunition or their food, and I thought this was normal because I did not know about the outside world.  

But then our house was burned down, I was 13 or 14, but I still thought, they can do this.

I did not witness this but we heard in the village that women were raped, and we were scared, and my friends had to marry military men because they came into the village and if they liked the girl, they would just take them, so my mother was very worried for us, and she said there is a refugee camp. So I came with other young women to the border to a refugee camp. I did not know, I had never known, there was a refugee camp. Then I found out more about refugee camps. In the refugee camp I found the women’s organization and I was able to attend training about human rights and democracy.

Hsa Moo: I was born in a refugee camp. My parents were from Burma and because of the fighting they could not stay there there and fled and came to the refugee camp and got married. When I was in the refugee camp the Burmese army came and burned down our house. I was only 8 years old. We had to flee and could not find each other, I stayed at home and could not find anyone, and the army came and they said, where are your parents, and I was really hungry and I asked for a snack and they said no. In the night-time they burned down our house. I was the only one left. But after two or three days we found each other, my parents came back. 

What is life like in a refugee camp?

Htoo Paw: The camp I came from is not close to a Thai city, it is about 3 hours away in a mountainous area. The camp is just a camp. We have small houses, we call it our home, but they are made of bamboo and the roofs are made of leaves. Each family has their own home but it is very close, we can hear each other very clearly. We are not allowed to go outside the camp, the Thai authorities don’t let you. There is a school provided by an international NGO and a hospital, not a proper one, just basic health care education. People do not have a chance to go out and work. Because there are schools and hospitals, some people work as teachers and medics. But for young people there is no more chance for them to continue their education because there is only high school, and then after high school there is a program for two years and then it is the end of their future, they have no opportunity to discover more. 

When was the first time you realized something had to be done, and you were going to take a leadership role?

Htoo Paw: After I joined the women’s organization I attended training for four months and then I thought, what we have is a dictatorship. Before that I did not know it was a dictatorship, and what they did to our village is not right, and so we have to do something to change this.

Hsa Moo: Since I started working with the student groups. But when I was young my mother told me about the Burmese torturing my grandfather and killing him. So I always, in my heart, felt I have to do something for my people. I am not like my other siblings. They didn’t get involved.

Can you describe the work you have been doing?

Hsa Moo: In the camp we have student groups and I was a student leader, and we are also working with some international NGOs. We were doing drama, publication, and KSNG radio, and kids programs. We found some funding for this group inside Karen state in Burma, and we have students there and we have leadership and management training for the students in the camps. We give media training to students, how to present, how to write a program, how to run the program. They have to be careful not to be too political because the Thai government might shut them down. Everything is related to politics. I have been a journalist reporting on the situation. 

In our community there are not many journalists. Things happened a lot but no one reported it for us, so I thought I had to do some reporting about my community to let others know. 

Htoo Paw: There are many community-based organizations and mine is a women’s group. We provide services for women, like literacy programs, because there are so many women, especially women in the refugee camps, who are illiterate. They had no chance to go to school, so we set up the program for them. The program is for children too, we have a nursery school because we want the women to be able to have skills in community work. In the refugee camp the families are so big. Each each family average is four children, so for the women, if we want to encourage them to work in the community, we need to provide a service that helps them to get out of the house, so we have the nursery school. 

We have other activities like sewing training, and other vocational training, because there are no jobs, so we provide that training so they can make some money. And we have a program called income generation. It is where we provide women training and we provide materials for them and we sell for them. They can get clothes and food for their family. Because in a refugee camp there only rice, fish paste (one of the main foods the Karen eat), chili, and beans provided by the international NGOs, but no other food. To get meat and vegetables they need more money so with the training they can weave and they can get a small of amount of money. So my organization has been working to support women in order to do things for their community and their family, not just stay at home.

What are your plans now?

Htoo Paw: We know it will not be easy, we thought about this before we left, because we already heard the stories from other people who came to Canada— they said we will  have to work hard to survive. And we have to adjust to another culture and this is what we are going to do, so the first year will be easier because we have the support group, but after a year we will have to work very hard and we will find opportunities to work part time and we want more education, so we will work hard and seek opportunities to study.

KSNG Radio has a website here.  And click here for a video about the station.

The photos below show Hsa Moo teaching journalism in a refugee camp, and in the KSNG radio station.

Source : http://thenelsondaily.com/news

More funding needed for Burmese refugees: BCUK

 Mizzima News

Burma Campaign UK has called on Britain to double funding for the Thailand-Burma Border Consortium (TBBC), which provides food and shelter for Burmese refugees, following Aung San Suu Kyi’s plea for aid to refugees in her Nobel speech on Saturday.
                                                                                                                                                                        

A street in the Mae La Refugee Camp on the Thai-Burma border. Almost 140,000 Karen refugees have been living in Thai refugee camps for up to 20 years. The minority ethnic group fled their country in the 1990s following a major offensive by the Burmese government army against the Karen National Union. Photo: AFP

“When I was at the Mae La refugee camp in Thailand recently, I met dedicated people who were striving daily to make the lives of the inmates as free from hardship as possible,” Suu Kyi said in the speech delivered in Oslo on Sunday. “They spoke of their concern over ‘donor fatigue,’ which could also translate as ‘compassion fatigue.’"

Around 150,000 refugees from Burma live in camps on the Thailand -Burma border, BCUK said in a statement on Sunday. The camps face ration cuts of 25 per cent and cuts in other essentials such as clothing, blankets and shelter, it said.

The BCUK said the European Union has reduced funding for TBBC.  Another reason for a funding shortfall, it said, is the rising costs of essentials such as rice, and to compensate for lower exchange rates.

British aid to Burma has been quadrupled in recent years, it said.

In the last Britain Parliamentary session, more than 60 MPs signed an Early Day Motion calling for funding to the Thailand Burma Border Consortium to be significantly increased. Overall, the refugees are facing a funding shortfall of around US$ 5-10 million, said the BCUK.

“Aung San Suu Kyi has delivered a clear message that she wants to see funding for refugees increased,” said Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK.

Suu Kyi visited the Mae La camp near Mae Sot, Thailand, on June 3 during her foreign trip outside of Burma in 24 years. There are more than more than 140,000 Burmese refugees, mostly ethnic Karen, living in 10 camps along the 1,800km Thai-Burmese border.

Suu Kyi was not allowed to use a loud-speaker to address the refugees, Mizzima reported. But, standing on a chair to make herself visible, she was allowed to speak briefly to the crowd of well-wishers and supporters at a medical clinic.

Observers said Thai authorities restricted Suu Kyi’s movements in deference to Burmese authorities, who voiced disappointment with the scope of Suu Kyi’s actions and her extensive media exposure in Thailand during her first trip abroad.

According to the Thai-Burma Border Consortium (TBBC), an umbrella group of NGOs working along the border, there are more than 140,000 Burmese refugees, mostly ethnic Karen, living in 10 camps along the 1,800km Thai-Burmese border, including more than 53,000 unregistered people.

In eastern Burma, particularly in Karen state, healthcare and education standards are rated among the worst in Asia. The sprawling Mae La camp houses close to 50,000 people, some of whom have lived there for decades.

Record 800,000 refugees crossed borders seeking asylum in 2011

Nicholas Keung Immigration Reporter

 

More than 4.3 million people joined the world’s growing refugee population last year, setting a new record for cross-border displacement since 2000, says a UN report.

Among the newly displaced were 800,000 refugees who were forced to flee their own countries and cross borders for safety and security, said the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ 2011 Global Trends report, to be released Monday.

The exodus of people — triple the number of 224,000 tallied the year before — began in late 2010 in the Ivory Coast, followed by other humanitarian crises in Libya, Somalia, Sudan and other places.

“2011 saw suffering on an epic scale,” Antonio Guterres, head of the UNHCR, said in a prepared statement. “For so many lives to have been thrown into turmoil over so short a space of time means enormous personal cost for all who were affected. . . These are testing times.”

In 2011, there were 15.42 million refugees, 26.4 million internally displaced people and 895,000 others in the process of seeking asylum worldwide, the 47-page report said. About 12 million people were estimated to be stateless, meaning they are not considered nationals of any country.

It has been the fifth consecutive year when the world’s displaced population exceeded 42 million.

One of the most worrying trends, the report said, is that a person who becomes a refugee is likely to remain one for many years, stuck in a camp or living a marginal life in exile.

Of the 10.4 million refugees under UNHCR mandate, almost three-quarters or 7.1 million have been awaiting a settlement for at least five years, with no foreseeable solution.

Afghanistan remains the leading country producing the most refugees in the world with 2.7 million displaced nationals, followed by Iraq (1.4 million), Somalia (1.1 million) and Democratic Republic of the Congo (491,000).

About 80 per cent of the world’s refugees were hosted in developing countries. The 48 least developed countries in the world were home to 2.3 million refugees.

Large refugee populations were seen in Pakistan (1.7 million people), Iran (886,500), Kenya (566,500) and Chad (366,500).

Among industrialized countries, Germany ranks first with 571,700 refugees, compared to 264,800 in the United States and 164,883 in Canada.

Some 17,700 asylum applications lodged globally were from unaccompanied children, mostly Afghan and Somali, up from 15,600 in 2010.

In 2011, 532,000 refugees returned home voluntarily, more than double the 197,600 from the year before. 

New asylum claims lodged in 2011 in top 10 UNHCR offices

Turkey: 16,000

Malaysia: 15,700

Yemen: 5,400

Egypt: 5,200

Jordan: 4,600

Tunisia: 4,500

Indonesia: 4,100

India: 4,000

Cameroon: 2,900

Syrian Arab Republic: 2,700

UNHCR 2011 Global Trends report

Source : http://www.thestar.com

Nursing Fellow Burmese in Thailand Against Many Odds

By Tala Dowlatshahi 

Dr. Cynthia Maung, who fled Myanmar for Thailand in the 1980s, cares for her fellow Burmese refugees and others along the Thai border. MAE TAO CLINIC

GENEVA — Dr. Cynthia Maung doesn’t care that much about the high-level Rio+20 United Nations conference on sustainability this week. And it doesn’t matter to her that the country she lives in, Thailand, is advancing a green agenda. Dr. Maung, a general practitioner, prefers to see action on the ground to help the refugee and migrant communities living on the border with Myanmar, also known as Burma.
Dr. Cynthia, as her team calls her, is 52 years old, a mother of four and lives in Mae Sot, a Thai border town that is home to one of the largest populations of Burmese refugees displaced in Thailand. She has been running the Mae Tao clinic for the refugees for more than 20 years. The longtime Myanmar opposition leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who is now a Parliament member, visited Mae Sot earlier this month to address the many challenges in providing adequate health services for these vulnerable populations.
Recent natural disasters, which some experts attribute to global climate change, have plagued the region, worsening the situation for the refugees by increasing food insecurity and the spread of malaria and other diseases as well as limiting access to medical facilities.
The United Nations is working daily to provide life-saving assistance in the areas of reproductive and child health, immunizations, infectious diseases and trauma in partnership with a number of community-based health groups in the region, including Dr. Cynthia’s clinic.
“I live just five kilometers from the border with Burma,” Dr. Cynthia said in a phone interview with PassBlue. “We work with the displaced to provide health services, pre-natal care and to protect children from severe malnutrition. Many young people are separated from their families and have unplanned pregnancies and unsafe abortions.”
Dr. Cynthia also runs several orphanages to help combat the threat of back-street abortions and child trafficking, which run rampant in Mae Sot. Many young migrant workers are coerced into prostitution without condom use and forced to leave their families — victims of traffickers who take drugs and children across borders for sale.
Born to the Karen ethnic minority group in Myanmar, Dr. Cynthia fled to Thailand in her 30s, in 1988, to escape religious persecution as a Baptist and detention by the military junta during pro-democracy movements in the country. When the military made a concerted push against the Karen, many of her fellow Burmese also fled the country or went into hiding, moving quickly and without possessions. After her escape into Thailand, Dr. Cynthia remained on the border. Though she struggled to survive, she was often asked to provide medical help to the local indigenous communities and began by offering treatments for malaria and pre-natal services for pregnant women.
Many of the people she assisted were fellow Burmese who had crossed into Thailand to seek refuge in towns and villages nearby over decades. The Women’s Refugee Commission, an international advocacy group based in New York, estimates that more than half a million Burmese refugees and asylum seekers have gone to live in neighboring countries. Hundreds of thousands of Burmese exist in refugee-like circumstances throughout Thailand, with at least a quarter of a million of them said to have fled human rights violations, though most if not all are treated as illegal immigrants by the Thai government.

Burmese refugees have more or less settled along the Thai border area in the last decades. A school in Mae Sot, above. TOM SPENDER

Environmental degradation is increasing the plight of the displaced people. “We must protect human rights by monitoring rights as they are linked with the environment,” Dr. Cynthia said. “Governments have to listen to the people and make them feel stronger and healthier. Human rights are affected on both sides of the border. Without human rights, there is no such thing as sustainability. The international community should engage with the Burmese and Thai governments to consider border security for the local populations instead of promoting economic needs through dam projects, which are causing environmental harm and spreading disease.”
Thailand’s prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, has agreed to increase investment in green technology and emphasized her country’s promotion of environmental protection programs, which include conservation and integrated coastal management. Nevertheless, big business from China seems to be trumping these interests. China, in partnership with Myanmar and Thailand, is aiming to build up Southeast Asia’s hydropower capacity in the next few years with billions of dollars souping up hydrodams.
Eager to please their powerful Chinese investors, the Thai government has allowed the building of dams to go unchecked to a point of ruin for many local people. Hydrodam projects on the Thanlwin River, which runs along the border between Thailand and Myanmar, have been widely criticized by Burmese migrant rights groups and environmental activists for forcing changes in water levels and causing downstream erosion.
The World Health Organization has also released studies focused on the links between water resource development projects, like hydrodams, and the frequency and transmission of malaria.
“Local town people are continuously displaced from their homes because the government is coming to make new hydrodam projects. It is a great vulnerability for women and children with no access to health services,” Dr. Cynthia said. Man-made reservoirs associated with the dam projects also severely degrade water quality, damage fisheries and create environments suitable for breeding mosquitoes and other disease carriers. In May, The Lancet medical journal published a study on a deadly strain of malaria that appeared to be drug resistant spreading rapidly from the rivers in Cambodia into Thailand and Myanmar. The infection has affected many migrant workers employed on the dam projects.
Dr. Cynthia’s clinic and the staff worked day and night to treat patients with the malaria symptoms. She said many cases could have been prevented if there were better systems in place to provide medical facilities for timely treatment as migrants traveled from job to job.
“There needs be a policy to protect indigenous people and the local community,” Dr. Cynthia said, “because big projects for hydropower force people to leave their home and be displaced. People can preserve local knowledge and culture and make sustainable agriculture. The government can promote and preserve the environment and empower the people to be sustainable developers of their own community.”

http://passblue.com