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Reflections from Mae La refugee camp on the Thailand-Burma border
U.S.-bound Burmese refugee participants in a cooking school at Mae La camp
Photo: Carol Young
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By Joseph Roberson, Director
CWS Immigration and Refugee Program
Suppose you have lived for 23 years in a refugee camp, your home just across the border only a few miles away. Even living that close and after all that time, you still have little chance of returning home or integrating locally.
Now imagine that representatives from western countries are coming to the camp, offering a confusing palette of options to resettle in faraway lands that you know nothing about, and where your life will be vastly different from all you've known so far.
This is the situation that members of a Church World Service (CWS) delegation witnessed on their visit to Thailand March 26 – April 2. We traveled eight hours by road from Bangkok to Mae La, a camp five miles from the Thailand-Burma border that more than 50,000 refugees from Burma call home.
Our delegation was hosted by the Thailand Burma Border Consortium, which provides food, shelter, and other non-food items to a total of 160,000 refugees in nine border camps, including Mae La. CWS is a TBBC founder and member.
Most of these refugees belong to ethnic nationalities targeted for repression by Burma's military regime, which seized power in 1962. The ethnic groups are seeking a federated state system that would give them a degree of regional political autonomy.
But their demands have been met only with increased brutality. Over the past 10 years, Burma's army has destroyed more than 3,000 villages. Forced labor, rape, torture, and summary executions are among the humanitarian atrocities perpetrated by the regime against civilians. As a result, an estimated 500,000 ethnic civilians currently are internally displaced in eastern Burma, and there are believed to be more than 2.5 million Burmese, including migrant workers and refugees, in Thailand.
The U.S. government has recognized refugees from Burma as a population of special humanitarian concern and began resettlement in 2006. As many as 100,000 could begin new lives in the United States over the next five years.
Interviewing and case processing of potential candidates for the U.S. Refugee Program is underway now at Mae La Camp. As our delegation talked with residents, we were caught up in their struggle to decide whether to stay in camp or move far away.
A Karen woman who hopes to be resettled in the United States told us, "We have been in the camp 23 years and have no hope here for a better future. I must try to move forward."
But a leader from the Karen Refugee Committee called resettlement both a "blessing and a curse." It offers a fresh start in life, but also means leaving one's community and part of one’s heritage behind. Communities that fled Burma and took refuge together in Thailand face being scattered around the globe.
With a high percentage of teachers, health workers, and other camp leaders opting for third-country resettlement, who will be left to serve and provide leadership? Does leaving mean giving up on the struggle for a Karen state? These questions remain unanswered at this point.
On the other hand, to decide against resettlement means living crowded together in bamboo houses in a camp largely ignored by the rest of the world. Refugees are forbidden to venture far from the camp, livelihood options are severely restricted, and the future holds little promise.
I believe resettlement is the appropriate option for some of the people in the camps. But third-country resettlement will not "clear out" the camps or end the atrocities in Burma. The military regime continues to force tens of thousands more civilians into Thailand every year.
Therein lies the real tragedy of this situation: the failure of the world to stand up against one of the world’s most repressive regimes and most flagrant violators of human rights. Villages are burned, ethnicities are displaced, and innocent people are forced to run or be killed. Yet, how often do we hear about the situation there? How can Church World Service bring attention and advocacy to this situation?
And what about the others left behind? What can be done to make their situations better? For its part, CWS will continue resettling Burmese refugees to the United States, keep working with the Thailand Burma Border Consortium to meet the needs of refugees who stay in the camps, and increase advocacy work for solutions that will allow the people of Burma to return to their homes.
Traveling with Roberson to Thailand were CWS Immigration and Refugee Affiliate Directors Sandra Mullins, Atlanta, Georgia; Carol Roxburgh, Dallas, Texas; Mary St. John, Greensboro, N.C.; Craig Thoresen, Phoenix, Arizona, and Carol Young, Louisville, Kentucky, along with Ken George of the American Baptist Churches USA and CWS/IRP staff persons Jennifer Hendrick and Erol Kekic.
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