Cash aid for Ban Mae Surin refugees

Myanmar government officials have donated more than 320,000 baht to refugees living in the fire-stricken Ban Mae Surin camp in Mae Hong Son province.

Karen refugees flee as fire broke out in their thatch huts at the Ban Mae Surin refugee camp in Mae Hong Son province, northern Thailand on March 22. (AP Photo)

Authorities in Karenni State, close to the Thai-Myanmar border, donated 322,432 baht (10 million kyat) to Karenni refugees who were affected by the fire that killed 38 and displaced more than 2,300 people on March 22.

The cash was partly made up of personal donations from local leaders, including the head of the Myanmar Peace Centre, Aung Min.

According to The New Light of Myanmar, the country’s main state-run newspaper, the money was delivered to the camp by the Karenni National Progressive Party, along with “blankets, mosquito nets, clothes donated by local people”, and 500 bags of rice from the Nippon Foundation. 

 

 

The Karenni State government used the aid delivery to call on refugees to leave Thailand and return to their homeland. Officials promised to offer refugees basic welfare support on their return. 

“State government offers the national people from the relief camps in Thailand to return home and will provide basic needs to them when they arrive in the native regions,” a statement said.

Ban Mae Surin camp leader Shally Than confirmed that some of the donations had already arrived at the site, in a phone interview with The Irrawaddy, 

Sally Thompson, the director of The Border Consortium (TBC), a humanitarian aid agency that provides food and supplies to Myanmar refugees in Thailand, added that the reconstruction process of the camp will start next week.

There are more than 140,000 Myanmar refugees, mostly ethnic Karen, living in camps in Thailand.

Aid access restricted at fire-hit camp

Authorities at the Ban Mae Surin refugee camp in Mae Hong Son province are restricting access to the site so that only officials, including the military and police, are allowed to enter.

Refugees stand amid the ruins of burned homes at the Ban Mae Surin camp on March 24. Authorities have stepped up security at the site in recent days, according to reports. (Photo by Thiti Wannamontha)

Those unknown to authorities will no longer be granted access because the number of vehicles making the journey to the camp each day is causing traffic jams and the road is “broken”.

Staff from The Irrawaddy news site attempted to visit the camp on Sunday but claimed their vehicle was turned around by an army commander, who told them to seek permission to access the site from the Khum Yuam district local government office, or leave their aid deliveries at the district warehouse.

“If I allow you guys access, I will be held responsible. I am not authorised to give you permission. Any action can be taken against me by higher officials,” the commander reportedly said.  

“So, please go back and ask for entry permission.”

At the local district office, officials denied the journalists access to the camp.

“A woman at the reception told us the reason we were being denied access was because there was no cellphone signal, the road was treacherous, and rescue would be impossible if we got into trouble,” an Irrawaddy reporter said.

The journalist added that despite receiving no official permission to enter Ban Mae Surin, their team then managed to access the camp by following a Channel 3 aid convoy along the serpentine dirt track that leads from Khun Yuam. 

“The commander who turned us around also tried to deny entry to the Channel 3 aid convoy, but eventually let the aid delivery go ahead,” the reporter said. 

“As we left later that afternoon, we discovered from local residents that the border guard force had since been brought in to provide security checks on every vehicle attempting to access the camp, which is in urgent need of humanitarian relief.”

Sally Thompson, the director of The Border Consortium (TBC), a humanitarian aid agency, told The Irrawaddy that Thai authorities are clamping down on the site, making it hard for outside visitors to enter the camp.

“The Thais are claiming they are blocking unofficial vehicles entering the camp because of congestion,” she said. 

“But when we arrived at the camp we discovered we were driving one of the few vehicles in the camp that day. Most vehicles in the camp belonged to the Thai military or the police. The road, although difficult to navigate, was not ‘broken’, as the authorities are claiming.”

One possible cause of the heavy security presence is the ongoing police investigation into the fire on March 22, which killed 38 people, camp residents said.

Displaced persons in the camp who escaped the fire are now staying with relatives in unaffected areas, or have set up temporary shelters using waste materials and a few tents from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

Shally Than, the chairwoman of Ban Mae Surin camp, told The Irrawaddy that the refugee committee is now planning its reconstruction program.

The TBC has put out a call for 13 million baht in donations to rebuild the camp.