Refugees demonstrate in camp

Tuesday, 19 January 2010 21:37 Phanida (New Brief)

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) - About 70 Burmese refugees in Nu Po camp on the Thai-Burmese border on Tuesday staged a demonstration in front of the office of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The refugees, who have long waited for resettlement to a third country, demonstrated silently with placards reading “Don’t Forget Our Welfare and Future”, “UNHCR Help” and “Hopeless Education for Children.”

“We held the silent protest to reveal the UNHCR’s negligence concerning us and the long procedures for third country resettlement,” Hla Aye, a protestor who has lived in the camp for more than five years, told Mizzima.

Following the demonstration, an official from the UNHCR office met with four representatives of the refugees for about half an hour. The UN official promised to take their demands to the UNHCR office in Bangkok.

According to the Thai-Burma Border Consortium (TBBC), an alliance group supporting Burmese refugees, there are an estimated 140,000 Burmese refugees living in nine camps along the border.