Karen's Keh living without fear and valuing his freedom

A Karen refugee from Myanmar says living in Australia has restored his dignity as a human being.

Keh Blut, who spoke at this month’s Karen National Day event in Hobsons Bay, arrived in Australia seven years ago after being born and raised in a refugee camp.

He works at Werribee’s New Hope Foundation, supporting other migrants and refugees.

Mr Blut said that after Karen land was confiscated by Burmese authorities, thousands lacked medicine, shelter or security and fled to Thailand as refugees.

“I was working as a community worker for 26 years,” he said.

“I was working with internally displaced people who are hiding in the jungle.

“Political turmoil and civil war have been common to me since I was born.

“The country is still ruled by the military dictatorship and there are many armed resistance ethnic groups still fighting for their freedom and equality.”

Mr Blut said civil war between opposition groups and the military government had been ongoing since Burma gained independence in 1948.

Its national day commemorates a peaceful demonstration by more than 400,000 Karen people who marched more than 1400 kilometres across Myanmar in 1948 seeking equal rights and justice.

Mr Blut said “Karen New Year Day” was celebrated around the world but could really only be a celebration for those free from fear.

“It is illegal to celebrate Karen National Day in Burma,” he said.

“Living in Australia, I started to taste the value of freedom and humanity, and regain my dignity as a human being.

‘‘I can live fearless under the Australian laws and regulations. I have the opportunity to learn higher education and work peacefully in this country. Thanks Australians.”

Mae Fah Luang Launches New Round Of Refugee Camp Surveys

The Mae Fah Luang Foundation has begun conducting surveys at Mae Ra Moe [Mae Rama Luang] and Mae La Oon refugee camps in Mae Hong Song province to gauge resident opinions on where they hope to live in the future.

More than 70 MFLF-trained refugees started gathering data on February 3 as part of a month-long project to assess how refugees feel about the prospects of repatriation, resettlement, and continued residency in Thailand, said Saw Rain, a resident who attended the training.

“Those who attended the training have to ask the people inside the camp,” Saw Rain told Karen News. “The refugee trainers have to ask the people from their camp three main questions: ‘Do you want to go back to your original home in Myanmar? Do you want to continue living in Thailand?’ and, ‘Do they want to resettle to a third country?’”

The survey takers are paid 200 Thai baht for every six household surveys completed, Saw Rain said. Only refugees over the age of 15 are eligible for interview.

Saw Tu Tu, an officer for the Karen Refugee Committee’s northern area, told Karen News that the MFLF is also soliciting questions in the two Mae Hong Song province camps about refugee vocational skills, which will then be submitted to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

“According to Mae Fah Luang Foundation, the schedule is to complete the survey from Mae Ra Moe and Mae La Oon refugee camps by the end of this month. However, the Foundation does not take any responsibility for what refugees need. They will also continue to conduct the survey to other refugee camps after these two camps,” Saw Tu Tu added.

Surveys undertaken by the MFLF last year in Mae La and Umpiem Mai refugee camps stoked fears of forced repatriation after some refugees said they were pressured into answering questions. According to the survey results, only 2 % of respondents preferred returning to Burma, while 60 % favored third-country resettlement, and 38 % wished to remain in Thailand and continue following the situation.

“Most of the refugees from our camp want to resettle to third countries, as currently the political situation of Burma is still difficult to speculate on, while the second group still wants to live in Thailand and observe the situation,” Mae La refugee camp chairperson Saw Honest said.

The MFLF, founded in 1972 by the late mother of Thailand’s king, is a non-profit organization seeking to promote development. It has been tasked with supporting the UNHCR’s survey projects on refugee livelihoods along the Thai-Burma border.

Burma’s ‘Medical Refugees’ Find Health Care In Thailand

Despite ceasefires between armed ethnic groups and the government’s military, many people from Burma are continuing to cross the border into Thailand in order to seek health care that is inaccessible or unaffordable in their own country.

This has created a population of ‘medical refugees’, a phenomenon that has largely been ignored in the course of current discussions regarding Burma’s progress on the road to reform. Over the last two decades, a number of health clinics, nonprofit organizations, and Thai hospitals operating on the Thai-Burma border have attempted to fill the gap left by Burma’s inadequate health care sector, providing a range of services including direct medical care, training, and health education to people from Burma. However, international donors that have decided to withdraw funding from these organizations in the wake of Burma’s recent political reforms are ignoring the plight of Burma’s medical refugees and the fact that it will take decades to rebuild the country’s failed health care system.

Health care professionals, government officials, and patients currently living and working in Burma provide invaluable insight into the current state of the health care sector in Burma and the challenges that patients face in attempting to get treatment. Discussions with these groups highlight the true cost of health care for patients in need of complex medical treatment and the challenges Burma faces as it works to reform its health care system. However, while some physicians and hospital administrators are willing to talk honestly about the challenges facing Burma’s healthcare system, many more are hesitant to talk without official permission from Naypyidaw. Few physicians will stray from the official party line that “health care is free in government hospitals”. Assessing the reality underlying this official government position is a challenge.

USER PAYS

It is true that health care is nominally free in Burma’s government hospitals, but a closer look reveals a health care system is plagued by corruption, underpaid medical staff, and limited facilities and equipment. It is rare that any medical treatment is truly free of charge to patients and their families. Patients must pay out of pocket for every service imaginable, including medication, equipment, medical supplies, diagnostic tests, and even basic cleaning and sanitation services. For example, when one physician was asked about the cost of a routine surgery, the physician replied that while the surgery is free, the patient has to pay for all of the medication and supplies needed for the surgery and post-operative care. In addition to all of the out-of-pocket expenses born by patients, their families report that they are frequently asked to make a “donation” to hospital staff such as nurses and orderlies in order to receive quality care.

Doctors working in the government’s beleaguered hospitals have few answers when asked about the contradictions inherent in the concept of ‘free health care’ when contrasted against the reality of the significant out-of-pocket expenses paid by patients. There are no standardized billing or payment policies in place which means that health care professionals largely have discretion about how much to charge patients on a case-by-case basis. Physicians in Burma interviewed for this article acknowledged that some may doctors generate ‘business’ for themselves by referring patients from their own private clinics to local public hospitals and then informing hospital staff that the patient is under their personal care. This allows the doctor to have some control over what the patient pays, even at the “free” government hospital. One observer said that, “officially” patients do not have to pay for treatment, but “unofficially”, doctors might require patients to pay private clinic fees even to have surgeries done at the public hospital – if they want to have the surgery done by attentive staff in a timely manner.

In the face of all of the contradictions and confusion regarding billing practices in Burma, patients are explicit when commenting on their experiences – nothing is ‘free’ when it comes to health care in Burma. Patients must pay for everything out of pocket. Patients in need of a minor medical procedure such as dressing a wound must go out and purchase their own supplies, bringing gauze, iodine, and antibiotics to the physician on duty at the local hospital. Similarly, patients undergoing surgery will be given a list of the medication and supplies that will be needed for the operation and told they must purchase the items on their own in advance of the surgery. One woman whose daughter was hospitalized during a recent dengue fever outbreak said that her daughter had to stay overnight in the hospital for several nights while she was recovering from her illness. In addition to the cost of her daughter’s medication and medical supplies, she had to pay cleaning fees, pay fees for required blood work, and was also expected to make a “donation” to the hospital staff attending to her daughter. Another patient that sought treatment at Yangon General Hospital said that in addition to all of the standard fees for her care, she was told she would have to pay extra to stay in a shared room with several other patients. Otherwise, she would only be given a bed in a crowded hospital hallway.

A NEED FOR MORE DOCTORS AND EQUIPMENT

While the costs of health care in Burma remains a touchy subject, physicians and health care professionals are more willing to have open conversations about the resource constraints facing the Burmese health care system. There is near universal consensus that outside of Rangoon and Mandalay, there are few options for patients in need of advanced treatment, specialized testing, or surgical care. For patients without the money or means to go to Mandalay or Rangoon for treatment, local health care options are limited. A group of physicians in Mawlamyine (speaking on condition of anonymity) said that only simple pediatric surgeries can be done locally. For example, babies born with life-threatening gastrointestinal problems can undergo emergency surgery in Mawlamyine, but must then be referred to Mandalay or Rangoon for subsequent treatment including essential reconstruction surgery. Similarly, outside of Mandalay and RAngoon, there are limited facilities available to test and treat cardiac patients. Health care professionals in Karen State said that there is no echocardiogram machine available in Karen State. Patients in need of an echocardiogram must pay significantly higher fees at a private clinic in Mawlamyine or be referred to government hospitals in Mandalay or Rangoon.

Health care facilities are also limited in neighboring Mon State – the one CT machine in Mawlamyine is only available at a private clinic. Modest estimates are that a CT scan at a private clinic might cost anywhere from 80,000 to 120,000 kyat ($100 USD), depending on the type of CT. However, one patient (also speaking anonymously) said, in his experience, patients might be charged double that amount for a CT scan, depending on the clinic and part of the country where it was done. His observation illustrates the lack of a regulated pricing structure and how patients can rarely predict the costs of any given medical procedure. Recent estimates place the average annual per capita income in Burma between $200 and $230 making the cost of a CT scan completely out of reach for most people. Further, physicians in Mawlamyine noted that no MRI is available in either Mon State or Karen State and patients in need of an MRI must also travel to Mandalay or Rangoon.

In 2012, the World Bank reported that 67% of Burma’s population lived in rural areas making it difficult for many to access the advanced medical facilities, expertise, and equipment only available in larger cities like Mandalay or Rangoon. International reports estimate that up to 70% of the population in rural areas in Burma face significantly increased rates of poverty, making it impossible for many to pay for even basic health care expenses, let alone advanced investigative procedures such as a CT scan or an MRI. Despite the fact that the Burmese government raised health care expenditures to 3.9% of the government’s total budget in 2013, health care officials in Burma readily acknowledged that more investment is needed. However, on January 10th of this year, the Irrawaddy reported that Burma’s government is currently facing a budget deficit and does not plan to substantially boost its allocation of funds for the health care sector in the 2014 fiscal year.

In 2011, the most recent year for which data is available, the World Bank reported that Burma’s healthcare expenditure per capita was $23 U.S. dollars. By contrast, in Thailand, Burma’s neighbor, health expenditure per capita was $201 U.S. dollars. Health care professionals in Burma have also highlighted the resource constraints facing the country, noting that Burma does not currently have the means to meet the vast health care need. These resource constraints are best illustrated not only in the lack of specialized equipment and testing but in the limited numbers of specialists available throughout the country. Health care officials in Burma reported that there are limited numbers of specialists such as cardiologists and neurologists in the country and the majority of them only work in Rangoon or Mandalay. While the goal will be to expand such specialty services to all states and divisions, officials readily acknowledge that goal still remains far out of reach. Asia News summarized the challenges outlined by Burmese Health Minister, Dr. Phay Thet Khin. In a speech to the Senate in August 2013, he noted that there are only 15 neurologists and 12 neurosurgeons in the entire country. With the exception of Rangoon, Mandalay, and Naypyidaw, he said there are not enough specialists to serve the rest of the country. The minister stated that there is a shortage of urologists, gastroenterologists, and other specialists, with no hope for improvements in the short term since it takes more than 10 years for a doctor to specialize in a particular field.

SEEKING TREATMENT IN THAILAND

The impact of the shortage of medical specialists along with the lack of affordable options for people with complex medical conditions is illustrated in the case of Khine Yazar, a 13 year-old girl from Mon State with cardiac disease. When, at the age of 10, she developed symptoms including severe fatigue and difficulty breathing, her family took her to a local private clinic. There, the doctor examined her and after listening to her heart, told her family he suspected she had cardiac disease. He advised the family to take her to Rangoon for investigation and treatment as there were no medical facilities outside of Rangoon or Mandalay equipped to treat her should she need surgery. Worried about the potential expense of seeking treatment in Rangoon, her family decided to instead seek a second opinion at another private clinic in Thaton Township. The second doctor confirmed the diagnosis of cardiac disease, but he did not advise the family to take Khine Yazar to Rangoon for further treatment. Instead, he recommended her family take her to Thailand. He said he was doubtful that a pediatric cardiologist would be available to treat her in Rangoon. He further warned them that even if a cardiologist were available, the cost of the surgery would be more than the family could afford. Despite his advice, her family was reluctant to seek treatment in another country and decided instead to borrow money from relatives in order to take Khine Yazar for investigation and treatment at Rangoon’s Asia Royal Hospital. There, doctors again confirmed Khine Yazar’s diagnosis of cardiac disease and confirmed that she would in fact need surgery. However, the only cardiologist on staff was traveling abroad at the time and would not be available anytime soon to perform the surgery that she needed. Even if the cardiologist was available, the hospital staff confirmed that the cost of the surgery would be 10,000,000 kyat ($10,000 USD). Khine Yazar’s family had already borrowed money to cover the costs of the trip to Asia Royal Hospital. When accounting for the cost of transportation, consultation, and testing, the visit cost the family a total of 160,000 kyat ($165 USD). With an income of only 515,000 kyat ($515 USD) per year, her family could never hope to earn enough to cover the cost of her surgery. Recognizing the limitations of Burma’s health care system, hospital staff in Rangoon also advised Khine Yazar’s family that their best option was to seek treatment for her in Thailand. However, as they were already in debt for the costs of her initial investigation in Rangoon, they couldn’t imagine how they would be able to afford the cost of her treatment in Thailand. Out of options, the family returned home. When they heard about the Mae Tao Clinic, a free health clinic operating on the Thai-Burma border from a neighbor, they decided to seek treatment for Khine Yazar there in a last ditch effort to get her the help she needed. Medics at Mae Tao Clinic referred Khine Yazar to the Burma Children Medical Fund, a medical nonprofit organization also operating in Mae Sot. BCMF then facilitated and funded Khine Yazar’s cardiac surgery in Chiang Mai. However, without access to organizations like these, Khine Yazar’s family would have had few options for getting her treatment inside of Burma.

THE LEGACY OF CONFLICT

Burma’s long history of conflict and unrest adds another layer of complexity to the challenges Burma will face on the road to health care reform. Currently, Karen State has a population of 1.3 million people and is one of the most resource-starved regions in Burma. The ceasefire between the Karen National Union (KNU) and the Burmese government that has been in place since January 2012 has allowed some progress in addressing the region’s needs as the two entities have begun working together to address some of the more pressing health care issues. However, both sides must first seek the cooperation and approval of their respective leadership before moving forward.

An article published in Karen News, in April 2013, stated that officers from the Karen National Union (KNU) health department and Dr. Naing, the Karen State Health Director, met and agreed to cooperate to fight malaria, to prevent maternal deaths, and to work together to get recognition for Karen State health workers. While government officials agreed in principle to the planned cooperation, they said they first needed to report the issue back to Naypyidaw for approval. Similarly, KNU officials stated that they needed to draft a detailed health care plan and report back to the KNU’s Central Executive Committee for their approval.

Karen News noted that before the KNU and the Burmese government reached a cease-fire last year, Karen health workers were at risk of arrest and detention. In government designated ‘black zones’, ‘shoot on sight’ orders were in place, and health workers risked death for providing health service to Karen communities. As a recent article on Devex noted, conflict also complicates things for aid organizations interested in working in Burma. Aid groups often need permission from rebel groups to enter territories under their control. In addition to the KNU and the Burmese military, other ethnic armed groups operating in Karen State include the KNU/KNLA Peace Council, the Border Guard Force, and the Democratic Buddhist Karen Army (DKBA).

THE ROAD TO REFORM

One positive note in the face of the many challenges facing Burma is that recent political reforms in Burma have meant that there are more opportunities for NGOs and nonprofits to work inside Burma. Much of the focus among aid organizations has been on primary health care, providing basic medication, testing, and treatment for some of the most prevalent health problems in the country. One of Burma’s oldest donors was the “Three Diseases Fund” which was established in 2006 to reduce the burden of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. Six bilateral donors as well as the European Commission, with a combined contribution of $140 million, supported the fund.

Today, conquering these diseases continues to be a primary focus of health care donors operating in Burma and the Global Fund is a major donor to Burma with continuing efforts to combat the three diseases. Aid organizations have also focused on providing basic health care to under served rural areas as well as reproductive, maternal, newborn and primary health care for children under 5 years of age, all essential areas to address for a country whose health care sector has languished under decades of conflict and military rule. Together with aid organizations working inside of the country, Burma is most definitely taking steps in the right direction when it comes to health care reform, but Burma watchers and public health experts point out that the task is monumental.

Despite this progress to address Burma’s primary health care needs, complex medical care remains a largely unaddressed area among aid organizations and there are only a handful of organizations helping patients who need surgery or advanced medical treatment. Options for those with complex medical conditions remain few and far between and many of these patients like Khine Yazar, are told outright by physicians in Burma that their best hope is to seek treatment in another country such as Thailand.

Many patients have exhausted their options in Burma before deciding to seek help from health organizations operating on the Thai-Burma border in a last ditch attempt to get treatment. Cutting funding to those organizations working to address the gap left by Burma’s struggling healthcare system is short sighted. It ignores the reality that while Burma is taking essential steps on the road to healthcare reform, patients must have access to essential medical services in the here and now. These services include life-saving surgery and complex medical treatment that, for the near future, continues to remain inaccessible and unaffordable to the majority of the population in Burma.

*Samantha Carter has worked as an auditor for the US Accountability Office and now works for Burma Children Medical Fund as a management and program analyst.

Rape and Human Trafficking -- Is This Burmese Democracy?

The world may be weary of stories of atrocities with constant accounts of man's inhumanity to man in the media. But recent events in Burma demand the attention and definitive action from the international community. A Thailand-based women's group has recently produced a report that documents more than 100 cases of rape being used as a weapon of war, mainly in the northeast of the country against ethnic and religious minorities.

Burma was renamed Myanmar as part of its makeover as a new democracy, ostensibly reducing the power of the military and restoring political freedom to its people. However, the transition has yet to take place for Burma's persecuted religious minorities and the government seems to be deliberately ignoring the atrocities taking place against Kachin, Shan and Rohingya people.

Muslims in a nation that is 90 percent Buddhist, the Rohingya have been described by the United Nations as one of the world's most persecuted populations. Driven from their villages to squalid refugee camps, they are defenseless against the Myanmar military and police.

The Kachin Women's Association of Thailand has documented 59 cases of sexual violence by Myanmar government soldiers and the Shan Women's Action Network has reported cases involving 35 women and girls. These are merely "the tip of the iceberg" according to the report as so many cases go unreported.

"The use of sexual violence in conflict is a strategy and an act of warfare that has political and economic dimensions that go beyond individual cases", the report states. "Sexual violence is being used as a tool by the Burmese military to demoralize and destroy ethnic communities."

These crimes against humanity are being carried out in a context of the United States strengthening military ties with Myanmar, making the U.S. complicit in human rights abuses on the level of crimes against humanity. Prominent U.S. Senators Menendez, Rubio, Cardin and Corker introduced a bipartisan bill in December last year that "would prohibit U.S. military aid to Burma, except in cases of basic training on human rights and civilian control of the military. The bill offers no waivers and would lift the prohibition only if Burma takes concrete actions to measurably improve human rights conditions, including: establishing civilian oversight of the armed forces, addressing human rights violations by their military and terminating military relations with North Korea. The amendment would also request an annual report on the Administration's strategy to engage the Burmese military."

However, legislation in the U.S. is painfully slow and according to the gov.track website the bill has an 83 percent chance of getting past committee and only a 23 percent chance of being enacted. The United States inexplicably stands by its contention that Burma is improving its human rights situation, being justification for the lifting of economic sanctions on the nation which allows U.S. oil companies to take part in oil exploration.

The lack of urgency being shown by the Western world is despite desperate efforts by human rights organizations and United Nations to stir the collective humanitarian conscience. Human Rights Watch has documented killings, rape and mass arrests by the Burmese security forces against Rohingya Muslims. Amnesty International also reports that as many as 104,000 people are in dire need of food, shelter and medical care, yet the Burmese government has no official relief policies in place and recently President Thein Sein blandly stated that the Rohingya should leave Burma. Their options are few as they are stateless and unwelcome in neighboring countries. Even in refugee camps they are unsafe as Reuters recently reported that Thai immigration officials are delivering Rohingya refugees into human trafficking rings.

The United Nations and the Unites States have issued calls to the Thai government to "conduct a serious and transparent investigation into the matter," but again, while human rights abuses and genocide are being deplored, there is little that can be done when the Burmese military dominated government is determined to eradicate its minorities and realizes it can act with impunity.

The rape of women and even young children will continue, the selling of refugees to human traffickers will continue and the desperate misery of countless thousands of minorities in Burma will continue just as long as the international community accepts this behavior. We should expect more from the United Nations and we should demand more from the U.S. State Department. The government of Myanmar's current actions are completely morally unacceptable and diplomatic negotiations must be initiated based upon the human rights of the Rohingya people.

Dr. Azeem Ibrahim is the Executive Chairman of the Scotland Institute, Fellow at the Institute of Social Policy and Understanding and a Lecturer at the University of Chicago.

Kajang’s shelter for Rohingya refugees raises eyebrows

Many Rohingya have been seeking assistance from a halfway house in Kajang which provides them with medical insurance to enable them to seek treatment at government hospitals. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, February 22, 2014.

Amid the activity building up in Kajang as next month’s by-election approaches, one house appears to be attracting considerable attention especially as scores of foreigners have been seen flocking to it, raising concerns that migrants are being brought in for the polls.

Even the police have visited the house.

With the hustle and bustle surrounding it, one might be forgiven for thinking the place was the election operations centre for either the Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Rakyat but it is actually a halfway house for asylum seekers and refugees.

The Malaysian Insider visited the premises, aptly called Patronage of Refugees, yesterday and met R. Ravindran, who began operating the halfway house in November last year.

He told The Malaysian Insider that the house offered medical assistance only to those from war-torn countries.

"We help refugees and asylum seekers from Myanmar and Sri Lanka. There have been Indonesians and Bangladeshis who have sought assistance but we turned them away."

Ravindran, who works for a home appliance company, said the halfway house did not offer documents or work permits to foreign migrants.

"What we do is to offer medical insurance to these immigrants so that they can get treatment at government hospitals."

However, there is a process which the foreign migrants have to undergo before they can be issued with medical insurance cards.

"When these migrants come to the house, they have to produce some form of identification, preferably an identity card issued by their home country or passport.

"We then give them an appointment slip and tell them to come back at a later date. During this time, we verify the identity of the migrants with their embassies."

If the migrant's documents were being held by an agent who refuses to return them, volunteers will take the migrant to the Kajang police station to lodge a report.

The Malaysian Insider discovered that there were 12 Myanmar men and 21 women being sheltered at the halfway house.

The 12 men were suffering from malnutrition and one of them had recently undergone surgery.

It was learnt that most of the women had been referred to the halfway house by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.

However, Ravindran declined to elaborate on the background of the 21 women being sheltered at the house.

Several Rela officers were seen on duty at the house yesterday, and their presence was explained by Ravindran: "We asked Rela to provide assistance as there have been scores of Myanmar migrants coming to seek help."

He added that the house was registered with the Registrar of Societies and the Home Ministry.

Several police Special Branch personnel also visited the halfway house yesterday and asked Ravindran to present himself at Bukit Aman for an interview.

It is understood that police had also heard rumours circulating about foreigners leaving the house holding pieces of paper and wanted to know what was going on.

Youth non-governmental organisation Solidariti Anak Muda Malaysia (SAMM) had recently voiced concerns over the influx of Myanmar migrants into Kajang.

There was speculation that the Myanmar nationals were flocking into Kajang to help swing the by-election in Barisan Nasional's favour.

During the 13th general election in May last year, PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had alleged that 40,000 Bangladeshi nationals had been brought into the country to vote for BN. – February 22, 2014.

Burmese Refugees in Thailand Are Running out of Options

BANGKOK — Win Myint and his two younger sisters fled Burma in June 2011, after months of harassment by plainclothes officers because of a documentary about the Burmese army featuring their exiled younger brother, a former soldier who later spent 15 years in jail for his pro-democracy activism.

The officers accused them of distributing the film and warned them they could be jailed. “They told us not to go anywhere overnight. They also followed me to places I gave tuition. They accused our younger brother of trying to break the unity of the armed forces,” said Win Myint, speaking by phone from Umpiem Mai refugee camp in northern Thailand. “We didn’t feel safe,” said Myint, a 63-year-old former teacher and a Muslim.

He and his sisters, both in their 50s, fled to Thailand, hoping to be recognized as refugees and reunited with their mother and three other siblings who are now in the United States.

But, like some 40,000 of the 120,000 people in the nine refugee camps straddling the Thai-Burma border, they arrived too late to be eligible for resettlement.

Thailand stopped screening and registering new refugees in 2007, and in January this year the United States, the largest recipient of Burmese refugees from Thailand having taken more than 70,000, announced it was ending its group resettlement program.

“The United States will continue to consider for resettlement individual referrals received from the UNHCR,” said the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok, but it did not elaborate further on the criteria for these cases.

The Thai government did not immediately respond to emails and calls seeking comment.

As former pariah Burma garners praise for its gradual democratic reforms, and financial support to the camps dwindles, so talk of repatriating the remaining refugees has grown—creating uncertainty and fear among the thousands of refugees who have a real fear of persecution if they return to Burma.

Critics point to the arrest of journalists and activists, continuing offensives against armed ethnic groups in the north, and persistent violence against the Rohingya in particular and Muslims in general as signs that Burma’s reforms have not gone far enough. New asylum seekers are still arriving in Thailand, underlying the patchiness of the reforms.

Life in Thailand, which has never ratified the U.N. Refugee Convention, is not rosy either. Refugees who go outside the camps are subject to arrest, detention and deportation.

“We can’t go forward or backward. We’re stuck,” said Win Myint.

Houses Raided

His brother Myo Myint lost an arm and a leg to an enemy mortar round while serving as a soldier in the Burmese army. He later became a pro-democracy activist, for which he spent 15 years in jail, where, Win Myint says, he was tortured.

He later fled to Thailand and the United States, where he now works as a translator and interpreter for newly arrived refugees. His story was told in Burma Soldier, an Emmy-nominated 2010 HBO documentary in which he spoke of the army’s routine abuse of civilians.

“If they go back they could be arrested at any time because I was involved in what the government considers to be an illegal film,” Myo Myint said in a phone interview from Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he has lived for the past five years.

Soon after the Democratic Voice of Burma, a news outlet, broadcast Burma Soldier in Burma in November 2010, plainclothes officers, who Win Myint believes were from military intelligence, started turning up at their house in the former capital, Rangoon, subtly threatening them with repercussions.

Coming from a politically active family – besides Myo Myint, another brother had been a student leader and a sister had helped political prisoners – Win Myint was no stranger to harassment.

But a raid on their family home one night in April 2011 by police and military intelligence officers armed with automatic weapons, left his two sisters badly shaken – especially as this happened only a few weeks after a reformist government led by President Thein Sein had taken power, ending half a century of brutal military rule.

The officers were looking for evidence that the family had been distributing the documentary and left empty-handed after a 90-minute search. But they kept returning, Win Myint said.

He and his sisters left Burma quietly without informing anyone, even their youngest sister whose visits had become less frequent as the authorities’ attentions became more intrusive. They decided to go to Umpiem Mai, where Myo Myint had lived before being resettled in the United States. Here they could sleep easier but their troubles were far from over.

Individual Resettlement, No Forced Return

The United Nations refugee agency, in a statement announcing the end of the group resettlement program, said that resettlement on an individual basis was continuing.

“UNHCR is still identifying vulnerable refugees for submission to resettlement countries such as Australia, New Zealand and Japan,” UNHCR spokeswoman Vivian Tan told Thomson Reuters Foundation. About 19,000 Burmese refugees have resettled in these countries.

Both the UNHCR and The Border Consortium (TBC), a non-governmental organization that has been working in the camps since the 1980s, also say conditions in Burma are not yet conducive for Burmese to return and no timeline for such action has been set. Still, people in the camps are worried.

“There are so many people in the same boat as us. Everyone in the camp is worried because our future is uncertain and there are a lot of rumours going around,” said Win Myint, now a volunteer teacher at the camp.

“We hear future resettlement will be to reunite families but only for those under 18,” he said. “We would like to request that people who a third country would agree to accept should be allowed to go. It would lessen the burden on the Thai government too.”

But Thai government policy remains that unregistered refugees cannot be resettled, with a few exceptions, assessed on a case-by-case basis, where immediate family members are or could be separated as a result of resettlement, said the UNHCR’s Tan.

“We feel hopeless and helpless,” Myo Myint, who blames his family’s troubles on his political activities, told Thomson Reuters Foundation.

http://www.irrawaddy.org/

A fair go for all refugees to Australia: Monsignor Rayner

Recent letters to “Your View” responding to my letter (The Leader 21/1/14) concerning boat arrivals have moved from clear comment to emotional, bigoted and/or even ignorant correspondence at times.

May I clarify a few points that have been tossed around erroneously? I have not tried to counter the magnificent advocacy by the Catholic Church on behalf of these “boat arrivals/refugees/etc”. Sister Annette Cutcliffe (president of Catholic Religious Australia), Bishop Saunders (Broome) and Bishop Hurley (Darwin) have spoken out constantly against various federal governments to provide basic rights to these arrivals.

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My refusal to allow the Greens to put their posters on private church fencing (not the polling booth) at the 3/4/2011 election says nothing of my “political leanings” but rather my religious convictions that I do not support the Greens on their pro-euthanasia, pro-abortion, pro same-sex marriage issues and their opposition to funding of Catholic schools.

Also, I am Australian and my ancestry in Australia dates back to 1859. Yes, my ancestors came by boat!

The original understanding on “refugees” was that the first receiving country must provide asylum (not the fourth or fifth country!) Surely the comment that these arrivals to Australia are escaping terror, rape and torture loses impact when they have arrived already in Indonesia, unless their fear is of the Indonesians.

I have visited Burmese refugees on the border of Burma and Thailand and some of the 100,000 refugees in Malaysia on a number of occasions. Having taken medicine to the Jesuit Refugee Centre in Kuala Lumpur on various visits and offered to sponsor 14 families via the UNHCR to come to Australia (this was rejected as the refugees would then have joined a sponsorship list that could extend their stay for another 10 years), I was pleased that a family from Burma via Malaysia will be arriving finally in Melbourne on Wednesday, February 12. 

My first assistance to this family was in 2010. Now, would it have been fair on other refugees in camps or on waiting lists for this family to have just jumped the queue (some say there is no queue!) and flown to Indonesia and boarded a boat?

My original letter concerned just this point. Justice is the key in dealing with all people while ensuring a fair go for all should be the determination of and the motivation for each of us. For the negative-minded in our community who do not see Australia as one of the world’s most generous and caring countries, may I suggest you review such criticism. Sure, we can do better but what a great job our nation is doing already.

Finally, let us bring in more refugees who are persevering patiently in various countries under UNHCR processing.

Big things grow from small things for Karen people in Thailand

The Karen are a people stranded between Myanmar and Thailand, recognised by neither country
 

From the Diocese of Melbourne

From a freewill collection at Werribee church, when people heard of the illness of a good friend of Karen refugees, a good idea has grown into a community centre in Thailand for Karen Anglicans from Myanmar who decide not to go home.

It is a remarkable narrative testifying to the generosity of Karen refugees and their recognition of heroes.

It all started when Anette Lemonius, pastoral worker for the Karen at Christ Church Bangkok for 14 years, fell ill with a terminal illness in 2012.

Many refugees who knew and respected her in the refugee camps had by then moved to Australia and lived at Werribee. They immediately took up a collection at St Thomas’ Church, Werribee, which amounted to $3,000 cash.

From other donors this has since grown to $20,000 which has paid for the construction of a hall in Anette Lemonius’ memory which seated 120 for the dedication and opening.

The new hall has a view of the mountains of Myanmar across which many refugees escaped during the long civil war. Between is the Moie River.

Of the 50,000 in Mae La camp, more than 1700 are regular worshipping Anglicans in three churches. From that grew another 2000 regulars in 5 villages nearby.

Bishop Stylo from Pa’an just over the border from Mae Salid, performed the dedication today before 120 people.

Mogens Lemonius, husband of Anette and a UN agriculture scientist, spoke today of his wife as “the compassionate counsellor”. She listened intently. A few days before her death, she asked to be buried with items which “bore witness to her Karen identity.”

Canon David Kharoe thanked donors towards the cost of the hall, saying “You have enabled us to make our dream come true.”

Bishop Stylo said, “God has already consecrated this hall because she is a daughter of God.”

Dean Yee Chin Wah of Singapore described seeing Anette being welcomed at a refugee camp in 2009, said “This is the mother of the Karen people.”

Archdeacon Alan Nichols, Multicultural Ministries Co-ordinator in the Melbourne Diocese, said Anette was a hero of the Karen people, like some of the women in Romans chapter 16 whom St Paul called deacons, apostles and fellow worker, who worked hard.”

Naw Tamla, general secretary of the Karen Anglican Ministry on the Border, told the audience the long-term purposes of the property, including a new two-storey building with meeting rooms, offices, training facilities and space for retreats. “And we want to stand on our own two feet with income generation,” she said.

Present at the dedication from Melbourne were the Revd Ron Peterson (Werribee), the Revd Jeremy Morgan (Collingwood) and Archdeacon Alan Nichols (Multicultural Ministry). Also there was the Revd Lay Kaw Baw, vicar of Inverleigh, who was visiting relatives in Myanmar and crossed the border for the occasion.

They represented a 25-year partnership between the Karen refugees in Thailand with both the Diocese of Melbourne and Anglican Overseas Aid.

Fire destroys homes in Umphien refugee camp

Fire broke out at Umphien refugee camp on Monday 3 February. No residents were injured.

Eleven homes were set ablaze in a fire at Umphein refugee camp on the Thai border on Monday. Residents were forced to dismantle a further 50 homes to prevent the fire spreading, according to the camp’s security coordinator, who said the fire had been sparked by a child playing with matches.

A temporary shelter was erected to house the 60 people affected by the complete destruction of nine homes and damage to a further two. No residents were injured.

Umphien — with an estimated population of 17,000 — is the second largest of the refugee camps on the Thai border after the nearby Mae La, where fire claimed the homes of 120 people and injured three in December 2013. That same month saw accidental fire ravage a Rohingya refugee camp in Pauktaw, Arakan state. The people of Umphien themselves are no strangers to fire, 1,000 homes having been destroyed in a February 2012 blaze.

Chin: Refugees Face Return Dilemma

Chin refugees in India face a dilemma whether they should go back to Burma, where their lands have been confiscated by the military and there is a possibility of revived persecutions, or stay in India as refugees, living a life of severe poverty and marginalization.
Below is a press release published by The Irrawaddy:

Expatriate refugees from the poverty-stricken nation of Burma have begun filtering back, partly as their country of origin has democratized and more ominously because they are feeling the heat from host countries like Thailand, India, Bangladesh and Malaysia to leave.

But so far, the Chin, an impoverished Christian minority that has been likened to the persecuted Rohingya, who have been set upon by majority Buddhists unmercifully, have yet to join the exodus. About 100,000 thousand of them are just across the border in India’s Mizoram State, where they fled in the wake of 1998 riots. Chin State, on the country’s southwestern flank, is one of Burma’s poorest. Nearly 75 percent of its 500,000 population live mired in poverty, deprived of support from the successive Burmese regimes in Rangoon or the new administrative capital of Naypyidaw.

Initially the refugees were either political activists or student leaders who were targeted by the then military rulers. But even with a quasi-democratic regime in Naypyidaw, the influx to India continues, with people entering India not to escape dictators or authority, but for a better life.

In some cases the Burmese Army may have already confiscated their lands and destroyed their properties. Finding difficulties in surviving inside India as well, the Burmese refugees are now seeking resettlement to a third country.

The majority of the Chin complain about discrimination from the Buddhist-dominated federal government. The 1988 movement against the then military rulers of Burma was crushed, leaving thousands dead across the country.

“Like other ethnic communities in Myanmar, the Chin people bore the brunt of severe poverty and military rule, prompting many to flee across the 1,463-km border into India’s Mizoram State,” according to a 2011 report by Physicians for Human Rights.

The refugees feel somewhat comfortable in Mizoram as it is one of the India’s few Christian-dominated states. The Chin and Mizo people, share ancestry, physical appearance, food habits and language accents. In some occasions, the highly influential churches also play an important role in propagating the sense of brotherhood between the two communities. Nonetheless, asylum seekers often face the problem of finding livelihoods. Mostly they work as cheap daily wage earners in construction sites, agriculture fields, market areas and also in local Mizo households.

“Our people frequently face rights violations here [Mizoram] even though they are reluctant to go back to their native places in Burma. We are actually afraid the situation in Chin State is yet to be favorable us,” said Pu Win, a Chin activist based in the frontier town of Saiha in Mizoram. The activist added that the Chin are worried about medical care and education for their children. So ignoring the troubles in Mizoram, most of the Chin refugees prefer to stay in India until their country develops a little more, he added.

Unlike those in Mizoram, Burmese asylum seekers in Delhi face more trouble as they are physically different, as is their culture, religion and language. As they are not comfortable in Hindi, the primary language, the refugees find it extremely difficult to communicate with their short-time employers and authorities.

India’s national capital gives shelter to over 8,000 registered Burmese refugees, but New Delhi is also home to another 10,000 asylum seekers, half of them women and children who have to travel over 2,200 kms from Mizoram to Delhi to enroll with the office of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

India, which supports a few hundred thousand refugees from Tibet, Burma, Sri Lanka etc., has yet to adopt a specific refugee protection policy, resulting in persistent confusion about the refugees and their legitimate rights. Moreover, India is not a signatory to the 1951 UN refugee convention or a 1967 refugee status protocol.

“As there is no procedural mechanism for protecting the refugees in India, the Burmese refugee women have to struggle for their basic necessities such as food, clothing and shelter in New Delhi,” said M. Kim, a Burmese exile based in New Delhi. “In addition to this, they battle with the constant fear of sexual assault and physical abuse.”

Quoting a report titled Doke Kha Bon with the accounts of 20 Chin women refugees in New Delhi, which was sponsored by the Burma Center Delhi and released recently, Kim asserted that the capital city remains universally unsafe for asylum seekers.

According to the UNHCR office in New Delhi, persecution due to minority ethnic race, religion and political opinion are cited as the main reasons for their seeking asylum in neighboring countries. “The most frequent complaints reported to UNHCR include difficulty in communicating with local health and education service providers,” said the BCD-sponsored report.

Prepared by the Pann Nu Foundation, the report includes case studies relating to Chin refugee women now living in west Delhi.

“Those women, many of them widows and single mothers, have bared their hearts during the interaction. In fact, every woman has a pathetic story to tell. Originally hailing from some remote areas of Chin, the refugee families were once dependent on Jhum [shifting] cultivation. But due to land confiscation practices adopted by the Burmese Army, the Chin villagers gradually lost their livelihood and left for India,” said Alana Golmei, founder and president of the Pann Nu Foundation.

Often the women and girls were compelled to serve the Burmese military as porters and laborers, made to serve food, and camp in the jungle with no proper shelter, without even knowing when they could return home.

“Needless to say, they all lack proper education. The interviewees can only read and write in their local Chin dialect. All these women, who are Christians, had no respite from the Buddhist dominated military personnel, who even barge into their houses and demand food time to time,” Golmei said. “They said the continued sexual assault by the Burmese soldiers is their worst nightmare there.”

But their lives in New Delhi are turning into another nightmare.

“They allege that they become victims of physical abuse, molestation, sexual assault and discrimination everywhere they go, be it at their rented apartments, workplaces, public spaces or even the roads for that matter,” Golmei said, adding that they keep mum about sexual assaults due to the fear of social stigmatization and shame.

Now voices have been raised for reviewing the existing foreign policy of the Indian government, taking into consideration the Burmese refugee women and children in the country. Understanding that the refugee women are more vulnerable and are easy targets, the activists appealed to New Delhi to continue supporting the asylum seekers.

“The new difficulty for the Burmese refugees has started with the news of democratization of Burma. Now most conscious people of India argue that the refugees should leave the country, as India has enough problems to deal with,” said Dr. Tint Swe, a physician and an exile in India for decades.

Tint Swe however admitted that Indian people in general remain merciful. Of course they are lately starting to believe that if Burma becomes comfortable and safer, they should leave.

“But the question arises here if the changes in Burma have prepared the ground for returning the refugees. In reality it has not. So we have urged the Indian government to review its existing foreign policy with an aim to continue safeguarding the refugees here for some more years,” he added.

Following the call from Burma President Thein Sein’s government to exiles taking shelter in different countries to return, many refugee families have already responded and have left India. Others, however, remain apprehensive about their future. In some cases it is understood that the Burmese Army might have already confiscated their lands and destroyed their properties. Finding difficulties in surviving inside India as well, the Burmese refugees are now seeking resettlement in a third country for a dignified life. -

Refugees from Myanmar worried about policy changes

FORT WAYNE, IND. — An advocate for Myanmar refugees in Fort Wayne says she’s worried that a change in U.S. policy will hurt efforts to reunite them with relatives living in the city.

Fort Wayne is home to more than 4,000 refugees from Myanmar — formerly known as Burma — making it host to one of the largest such communities in the country.

Burmese Advocacy Center leader Minn Myint Nan Tin said she’s concerned about the State Department’s decision to stop accepting resettlement applications from Myanmar refugees living in nine camps in Thailand.

“I wish that there is still a hope for ongoing family reunification process,” she said.

She said two people recently asked the center for help in bringing relatives to the United States, including a woman with three sons who’ve spent six years in refugee camps.

State Department spokeswoman Christine Getzler Vaughan said resettlements won’t stop just because applications have been halted.

Myanmar refugees began coming to Fort Wayne in 1993 to escape military rule in the southeast Asian country. The biggest waves came in 2007 and 2008, when Catholic Charities of the Fort Wayne-South Bend Diocese resettled more than 1,400 refugees in the city.

The Jan. 24 end to the applications came after the State Department began issuing deadlines a year ago for refugees to decide whether they wanted to leave the Thai camps for the United States as part of a resettlement program that began in 2005.

“The resettlement program will continue until we have completed the processing of every application received by the deadline for each camp, and we expect that to happen over the next two years,” Vaughan said.

The State Department also will consider resettling people from Myanmar “with specific protection needs” who are referred by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, she said.

The State Department has approved relocating as many as 170 refugees to the Fort Wayne area during the 2014 fiscal year, the same number as the previous year, she said.

The U.N. estimates that 120,000 Myanmar refugees remain in camps along the Thai-Myanmar border. The U.N. reported this week that nearly 6,500 expressed interest in the past year in resettling to the U.S.

TBC say the Thai border refugee population has decreased by 7.1 percent

TBC say the Thai border refugee population has decreased by 7.1 percent

Updated 2013 population figures for the refugee camps on the Thai-Burmese border show that the net population decreased 9,044 or 7.1 percent in 2013. The total population living in the nine camps was 119,156 at the end of December 2013, compared to 128,200 at the end of 2012, according to The Border Consortium (TBC), an NGO that works with refugees and displaced people from Burma.

The largest proportion of departures from the camps, 7,649, consists of refugees leaving for third countries under the UNHCR’s resettlement programme.

“It is important to note that while there was a net population decrease, new refugees are continuing to arrive in the camps; there were 3,300 new asylum seekers arriving in 2013,” said Sally Thompson, executive director of TBC. “In addition, 3,137 children were born in camps in 2013,” Thompson added.

“Changes in population do not mean that there is any less need for protection, food, shelter, and essential services such as education and health care in the camps,” noted Thompson. “There are still 120,000 people living in extremely vulnerable conditions in refugee camps on Thai-Burmese border, and they continue to need protection and humanitarian assistance.”

TBC also notes that there is no indication a large proportion of refugees are returning to Burma. Only 3.4 percent of the December 2012 camp population returned to Burma, versus 6 percent who were resettled to third countries.

“These figures show us that refugees are not leaving the camps and retuning to Burma en masse,” said Thompson. “It appears that the majority of those returning are going back on a ‘look and see’ basis.”

TBC’s data shows that of the 4,389 people who did leave the camps to return to Burma, 70 percent of all departures include just one or two people from a household, while the rest of the household remains in the camps.

“TBC agrees with UNHCR, the Government of the Union of Myanmar, the Royal Thai Government, and many international partners that conditions do not yet exist for the organised return of refugees,” the report said.

An additional 3,348 refugees left the camps in 2013 to seek work in the migrant community, TBC reported.

Refugees From Burma’s Chin State Face Indian Dilemma

A young refugee from Burma’s ethnic Chin minority holds a placard during a protest rally to mark World Refugee Day in New Delhi on June 20, 2011. (Photo: Reuters / Parivartan Sharma)

Expatriate refugees from the poverty-stricken nation of Burma have begun filtering back, partly as their country of origin has democratized and more ominously because they are feeling the heat from host countries like Thailand, India, Bangladesh and Malaysia to leave.

But so far, the Chin, an impoverished Christian minority that has been likened to the persecuted Rohingya, who have been set upon by majority Buddhists unmercifully, have yet to join the exodus. About 100,000 thousand of them are just across the border in India’s Mizoram State, where they fled in the wake of 1998 riots. Chin State, on the country’s southwestern flank, is one of Burma’s poorest. Nearly 75 percent of its 500,000 population live mired in poverty, deprived of support from the successive Burmese regimes in Rangoon or the new administrative capital of Naypyidaw.

Initially the refugees were either political activists or student leaders who were targeted by the then military rulers. But even with a quasi-democratic regime in Naypyidaw, the influx to India continues, with people entering India not to escape dictators or authority, but for a better life.

In some cases the Burmese Army may have already confiscated their lands and destroyed their properties. Finding difficulties in surviving inside India as well, the Burmese refugees are now seeking resettlement to a third country.

The majority of the Chin complain about discrimination from the Buddhist-dominated federal government. The 1988 movement against the then military rulers of Burma was crushed, leaving thousands dead across the country.

“Like other ethnic communities in Myanmar, the Chin people bore the brunt of severe poverty and military rule, prompting many to flee across the 1,463-km border into India’s Mizoram State,” according to a 2011 report by Physicians for Human Rights.

The refugees feel somewhat comfortable in Mizoram as it is one of the India’s few Christian-dominated states. The Chin and Mizo people, share ancestry, physical appearance, food habits and language accents. In some occasions, the highly influential churches also play an important role in propagating the sense of brotherhood between the two communities. Nonetheless, asylum seekers often face the problem of finding livelihoods. Mostly they work as cheap daily wage earners in construction sites, agriculture fields, market areas and also in local Mizo households.

“Our people frequently face rights violations here [Mizoram] even though they are reluctant to go back to their native places in Burma. We are actually afraid the situation in Chin State is yet to be favorable us,” said Pu Win, a Chin activist based in the frontier town of Saiha in Mizoram. The activist added that the Chin are worried about medical care and education for their children. So ignoring the troubles in Mizoram, most of the Chin refugees prefer to stay in India until their country develops a little more, he added.

Unlike those in Mizoram, Burmese asylum seekers in Delhi face more trouble as they are physically different, as is their culture, religion and language. As they are not comfortable in Hindi, the primary language, the refugees find it extremely difficult to communicate with their short-time employers and authorities.

India’s national capital gives shelter to over 8,000 registered Burmese refugees, but New Delhi is also home to another 10,000 asylum seekers, half of them women and children who have to travel over 2,200 kms from Mizoram to Delhi to enroll with the office of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

India, which supports a few hundred thousand refugees from Tibet, Burma, Sri Lanka etc., has yet to adopt a specific refugee protection policy, resulting in persistent confusion about the refugees and their legitimate rights. Moreover, India is not a signatory to the 1951 UN refugee convention or a 1967 refugee status protocol.

“As there is no procedural mechanism for protecting the refugees in India, the Burmese refugee women have to struggle for their basic necessities such as food, clothing and shelter in New Delhi,” said M Kim, a Burmese exile based in New Delhi. “In addition to this, they battle with the constant fear of sexual assault and physical abuse.”

Quoting a report titled Doke Kha Bon with the accounts of 20 Chin women refugees in New Delhi, which was sponsored by the Burma Center Delhi and released recently, Kim asserted that the capital city remains universally unsafe for asylum seekers.

According to the UNHCR office in New Delhi, persecution due to minority ethnic race, religion and political opinion are cited as the main reasons for their seeking asylum in neighboring countries. “The most frequent complaints reported to UNHCR include difficulty in communicating with local health and education service providers,” said the BCD-sponsored report.

Prepared by the Pann Nu Foundation, the report includes case studies relating to Chin refugee women now living in west Delhi.

“Those women, many of them widows and single mothers, have bared their hearts during the interaction. In fact, every woman has a pathetic story to tell. Originally hailing from some remote areas of Chin, the refugee families were once dependent on Jhum [shifting] cultivation. But due to land confiscation practices adopted by the Burmese Army, the Chin villagers gradually lost their livelihood and left for India,” said Alana Golmei, founder and president of the Pann Nu Foundation.

Often the women and girls were compelled to serve the Burmese military as porters and laborers, made to serve food, and camp in the jungle with no proper shelter, without even knowing when they could return home.

“Needless to say, they all lack proper education. The interviewees can only read and write in their local Chin dialect. All these women, who are Christians, had no respite from the Buddhist dominated military personnel, who even barge into their houses and demand food time to time,” Golmei said. “They said the continued sexual assault by the Burmese soldiers is their worst nightmare there.”

But their lives in New Delhi are turning into another nightmare.

“They allege that they become victims of physical abuse, molestation, sexual assault and discrimination everywhere they go, be it at their rented apartments, workplaces, public spaces or even the roads for that matter,” Golmei said, adding that they keep mum about sexual assaults due to the fear of social stigmatization and shame.

Now voices have been raised for reviewing the existing foreign policy of the Indian government, taking into consideration the Burmese refugee women and children in the country. Understanding that the refugee women are more vulnerable and are easy targets, the activists appealed to New Delhi to continue supporting the asylum seekers.

“The new difficulty for the Burmese refugees has started with the news of democratization of Burma. Now most conscious people of India argue that the refugees should leave the country, as India has enough problems to deal with,” said Dr. Tint Swe, a physician and an exile in India for decades.

Tint Swe however admitted that Indian people in general remain merciful. Of course they are lately starting to believe that if Burma becomes comfortable and safer, they should leave.

“But the question arises here if the changes in Burma have prepared the ground for returning the refugees. In reality it has not. So we have urged the Indian government to review its existing foreign policy with an aim to continue safeguarding the refugees here for some more years,” he added.

Following the call from Burma President Thein Sein’s government to exiles taking shelter in different countries to return, many refugee families have already responded and have left India. Others, however, remain apprehensive about their future. In some cases it is understood that the Burmese Army might have already confiscated their lands and destroyed their properties. Finding difficulties in surviving inside India as well, the Burmese refugees are now seeking resettlement in a third country for a dignified life.

Burmese refugee trades monsoon rains for snow and freedom

Mi Mi Thaung, a 41-year-old refugee from Burma, now called Myanmar, came to Canada in 1996 after she married a fellow refugee from her homeland. In 1978, her father, a doctor, had been put in jail for alleged revolutionary activity for three months. Upon his release, the family fled to Thailand. Her father worked as a surgeon on the border of Thailand and Burma, helping his fellow exiles. The rest of the family settled nearby.

In 1985, her mother sought asylum in the United States, joining a cousin in New York. She then sponsored her two children and husband to come to the United States in 1993. Once in the U.S., Mi Mi went to college. But something was pulling her heart north — a relationship with a fellow refugee, Saw Moo, a student revolutionary in the 1988 uprising in Burma, whom she had met at a refugee camp. Moo came to Canada in 1993. He studied landscaping and horticulture at Algonquin College in Ottawa. The couple eventually settled in Toronto in 1998.

What were your thoughts about coming to Canada?

I love the education here. In Canada the best one is health care. The second one is human rights. The third one is education.

Did you find it difficult living in Toronto?

As soon as I stepped my feet on Canadian land it was: “I’m coming home.” When I step my feet in to Canada I’m coming home. It’s already my home. I just left for a second and then I come back home. It’s like someone open arms and hugs us with warmness and love.

You mentioned political freedom that we have here is important to you. Can you explain that?

I can talk freely (here). In Thailand I cannot say my dad is helping people in the jungle. We’re stateless and we escaped from Burma. I can’t tell my story. We cannot say that freely. And you never know who will inform the officials. Oh you’re illegal in Thailand. Even in Burma, you cannot come and talk to me and interview me like this. You have to go hide somewhere and do the interview. You can’t do it openly.

What did you think of Toronto when you first saw it?

It’s a beautiful city, big city. One problem it was hard to find an apartment. Then we rent only a little room a bachelor room, my son was 2. That room was $600. Near Queen and Ossington area. . . . One thing I like everything is convenient. You want food from our country, Chinese food, Japanese food, everything you can find here.

What was your reaction to a Canadian winter?

Actually I love the winter. One thing for me it’s calm, clean, especially when it’s a snow day it’s so beautiful . . . everything looks like it’s peaceful. I think we come from a country with a lot of problems when I see the snow come down it’s peaceful; it’s not like rain. We grew up in a country with monsoon rain and the rain comes down and it’s boom, boom, boom, boom. But here (the snow is) just like after the wedding when people throw confetti. The snowflakes are just like flower petals falling down from the sky.

What advice did you give other members of the Karen community about integrating into Toronto? Other immigrants or refugees?

First for me was education — English. Even the older people I encouraged (them) to go to school try to learn one word a day. First, yes or no. Second, good morning, thank you. Try to remember one word a day. . . . You have to stand up by yourself. The second thing is work.”

State Department not accepting some Burmese applications

The U.S. State Department has stopped accepting resettlement applications from Burmese refugees living in nine camps in Thailand.

The leader of the local Burmese Advocacy Center fears the decision could put at risk ongoing efforts to reunite refugees with their families living in Fort Wayne, which is home to more than 4,000 Burmese.

"I wish that there is still a hope for ongoing family reunification process," Minn Myint Nan Tin said Thursday in an email.

She said two people recently asked the center for help in bringing family members to the United States from Thai refugee camps. In one case, a city woman said three of her sons have been in a refugee camp for the past six years.

A State Department spokeswoman said resettlements will not stop just because applications have been halted.

"The resettlement program will continue until we have completed the processing of every application received by the deadline for each camp, and we expect that to happen over the next two years," Christine Getzler Vaughan, public affairs officer for State's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, said in an email.

The Jan..24 end to the applications came as no surprise. A year ago, the State Department began issuing deadlines for refugees to decide whether they wanted to leave the Thai camps for the United States as part of a resettlement program that began in 2005.

Vaughan said the State Department also will consider resettling Burmese "with specific protection needs" who are referred by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Burmese had for decades been fleeing oppressive military rule in Myanmar, a Southeast Asian nation formerly known as Burma. Democratic reforms there in recent years have sparked expectations that many expatriates might return eventually.

Catholic Charities of the Fort Wayne-South Bend Diocese has been resettling Burmese refugees to northern Indiana for the past 20.years. Vaughan said the State Department has approved relocating as many as 170 refugees to the Fort Wayne area during fiscal 2014, the same number as in fiscal 2013. Most are expected to be Burmese, she said, with as many as 35 African refugees coming here.

"With our robust resettlement program, the number of eligible Burmese refugees has been reduced significantly, and not all Burmese who are eligible for resettlement consideration are interested in permanent resettlement to the United States," Vaughan said.

The U.N. estimates that 120,000 Burmese refugees remain in camps along the Thai-Myanmar border. The U.N. reported this week that nearly 6,500 expressed interest in the past year in resettling to the U.S.

bfrancisco@jg.net