Thailand's plans to close refugee camps near Burma border

[ZIRC]

Thailand's plans to close refugee camps near Burma border

Updated April 13, 2011 13:52:25

The Thai Government says it wants to close down its border camps with Burma and send the over 100 thousand people living in the camps back to Burma, or to a third country.

The Government says Burmese refugees have been in Thailand for more than 20 years and sheltering them is a burden. But the United Nations and other humanitarian organisations say the situation in Burma remain unstable and they're sceptical such a plan can work.

Reporter: Alma Mistry
Speaker: Dr Panitan Wattanayagorn, Thailand Government spokesman; Kitty McInsey, Spokeswoman, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees; Jack Dunford, Executive Director Thailand Burma Border Consortium

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TALENT: Dr. Panitan Wattanayagorn, Thailand Government spokesman; Kitty McInsey, Spokeswoman, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees,Bangkok; Jack Dunford, Executive Director Thailand Burma Border Consortium.

MISTRY: Thailand says it's been looking after people from Burma in several camps along its western border for over 20 years.

Thai government spokesman Dr Panitan Wattanayagorn says while there's no time-table for closing the camps, Bangkok has told the new Burmese administration it should prepare to accept some of the displaced people in the future.

PANITAN: We do not say it is a normal situation but with the election and with the setting up of the new parliament we see progress towards reconciliation. This is why we are now in preparation to make sure that for those people who would like to return home, they should prepare themselves to return home.

MISTRY: Dr Panitan says Thailand also wants the international community, especially developed nations - to take more responsibilty for the refugees.

PANITAN: The National Security Council Chief expects the UNHCR to be more responsible for these people and of course countries where these people would like to go, the third country, the country where they would like to settle down, specially countries in the west they should come out and work with Thailand more progressively to make sure that these people can be settled down in those countries, including returning to Myanmar of course.

MISTRY: The United Nations High Commission for Refugees says 98 thousand people are registered as living in the camps. But another forty or fifty thousand people are also thought to be living there. The majority come from Burma's east, where skirmishes often break out between Burmese troops and ethnic rebels.

Kitty McKinsey is a UNHCR spokeswoman, in Bangkok. She says many of the camp's residents want to go back to Burma. But she says the United Nations isn't confident it's safe for them because it hasn't been allowed to visit many areas.

MCKINSEY: Normally we would be involved from the beginning we wuld have access to the territories and we dont have access to eastern Myanmar from either the Thai side or either from our office in Yangon and then I can't emphasise enough that the word is voluntary they have to volunteer to go home and then we need to be able to monitor them later on and we just don't have access to that part of Myanmar right now.

MISTRY: Last year, Burma held its first elections in 20 years. But international observers say it remains a military dictatorship in all but name, with several former generals elected and re-appointed to high posts in the new parliament.

Jack Dunford is the Executive Director of the Thailand Burma Border Consortium, which is made up of several non government organisations working in the border camps. He says despite the changes in the government, eastern Burma remains violent and unstable.

DUNFORD: So far there's no sign at all that anything has changed and certainly on the ground in eastern burma the rports we have is that the Burmese army continues to to assimilate former ethnic areas, that villages continue to be displaced and relocated, that human rights abuses continue ands that there's and an ongoing flow of new refugees trickling into Thailand.

MISTRY: The Foreign Ministers from Thailand and Burma met this week and the issue of border camps was discussed. But Thai Government spokesman Dr Panitan wouldn't be drawn on how Burmese officials have reacted to Thailand's plans to close the camps.

PANITAN: We cannot say anything for the government of Myanmar Only we can say is that we're looking forward to working with the new governmnet to solve difficult issues like border issues.

MISTRY: Kitty McKinsey from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, says it's up to the Thai Government and others to continue to press Burma to improve the situation in the country's east so that refugees can return to their homes.

MCKINSEY: What we do see is a need for the international community to engage with the national and regional authorities in Myanmar to promote the condistions for the refugees to go home. Because if you've ever been in a refugee camp you would know that you don't want to spend your life there. These refugees don't want t spend their lives there. Most of the ones I talk to say they cam over thinking they would spend a week here or a month here and then the fighting would be over and then they would go home. (ABC Radio, Australia)