Refugees Under Pressure to Return to Burma

By LAWI WENG, Irrawaddy.org, January 25, 2010.

About 3,000 Karen villagers who live in Tha Song Yang District in Tak Province in Thailand are under pressure from Thai authorities to return to Burma, according to human rights groups.

Thai authorities were scheduled to hold a meeting in Tha Song Yang district on Monday to determine the fate of the refugees, but rights group said it was postponed.

Read more »

Karen Villagers Forced to Hide in Jungle

By SAW YAN NAING, Irrwaddy News, January 23, 2010.

More than 1,000 Karen villagers from ten villages in Nyaunlebin District in Pegu Division fled their homes on Jan. 17 and are still hiding in the jungle due to Burmese government army attacks, according to a Karen relief group.

The villagers, including women and children, lack sufficient food, medical care and other basic necessities, according to the Committee for Internally Displaced Karen People (CIDKP), a Thailand-based nongovernmental organization.

Read more »

Burmese Migrant Workers Fear New Thai Work Permit Rules

Credit: Ron Corben, Bangkok, VOA News. Jan 21, 2010.

Burmese migrant workers in Thailand fear new immigration and work permit procedures will make life harder for them and their families back home. Thai authorities say the new procedures will curb illegal migration but rights activists say the measures threaten the migrants' security.

The Thai cabinet has recently ordered migrant workers to verify their nationality to qualify for work permits.

The new guidelines cover over one million legal Burmese migrant workers in Thailand, as well as more than 200,000 workers from Laos and Cambodia.

Under the guidelines announced Tuesday, migrant workers must begin the new work permit procedures by February 28th or risk deportation.

Read more »

Karen Refugees Have a White Christmas in Ireland

Simon Roughneen, The Irrawaddy, January 11, 2010.

After fleeing an army campaign of human rights abuses in eastern Burma, a group of Karen refugees celebrated a white Christmas this year in the snowbound west of Ireland.

"Every now and then, the military comes through our village and asks my mother, 'Where is your son?'" said Po Hta. His mother tells them that he is in Thailand.

But that's no longer true.

As a teenager, Po Hta fled Burma in 1994, spending a couple of years in Bangkok before the Thai authorities moved him to Ban Don Yang refugee camp in the north. He spent 10 years there, before being sent to Ireland in 2007 under a U.N. refugee resettlement program.

Read more »

Influx of Burmese refugees to Fort Wayne drops

Associated Press
December 27, 2009

FORT WAYNE, Ind. - The number of Burmese refugees resettling in the Fort Wayne area dropped in 2009 as the federal government responded to the recession by moving fewer refugees to northeastern Indiana.

The State Department says about 300 Burmese refugees resettled in the Fort Wayne area between October 2008 and October 2009 – about half the number aid agencies had been expecting.

While 2009’s number is still the third-highest number of refugees welcomed in a year, The Journal Gazette reports that it’s far below the more than 800 refugees that arrived in 2007.

Burmese refugees have been fleeing Myanmar, also called Burma, for decades to escape its ruling military government. Since the 1990s, many have been sent to Fort Wayne.

Human-services agencies say Fort Wayne is now believed to have the largest concentration of Burmese refugees in the U.S., estimated at more than 5,000.