UNHCR first learned about the positive benefits of clowns when a local troupe was hired for World Refugee Day 2007 to perform in the tense and unhappy waiting room at the main refugee registration centre in Damascus. UNHCR staff noticed…
Historically, Thai officials overseeing the refugee camps on the Thai-Burma border have assigned a fairly high degree of responsibility for handling some crimes or civil disputes to the refugee leadership. This excludes serious crimes, such as murder, rape, drug offences…
IRC is concerned that there are significant numbers of Burmese living in Thailand who qualify for and deserve international protection and assistance but who do not have access to proper registration processes. Without a transparent, humane and lawful asylum policy…
If there is one positive result from the Burmese junta’s brutal response to the peaceful demonstrations in Yangon in September 2007, it is the re-opening of registration by UNHCR for new asylum seekers from Burma. This comes after a hiatus…
In 1991 some 250,000 Muslim Rohingyas were recognised as refugees on a prima facie basis by the Government of Bangladesh. The vast majority were repatriated by the Government of Bangladesh to Myanmar in the following years, leaving only two of…
Refugees who have fled Burma can testify to the brutality of the regime. In January, I visited the Mae La refugee camp in Thailand, just five miles from Burma, and heard from dozens of the junta’s victims. When the camp…
The majority of assistance and advocacy – and most research – regarding forced migration in Burma has focused on the situation in armed conflict-affected areas along the Thailand border. As international agencies do not have direct access to conflict-affected parts…
A common external misrepresentation of the conflict and displacement in eastern Burma is one which narrowly depicts a civil war between the SPDC army and armed opposition groups like the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), with civilians as unintended victims…
Humanitarian responses to this chronic emergency have come both from agencies based inside Burma and from agencies based in neighbouring countries and working discreetly across national borders. Government restrictions on programmes and travel by international staff in remote areas were…
With per capita expenditure on health in Burma estimated at less than $0.50 per year,[1] it is not surprising that health status in Burma is lower than elsewhere in the region. This is particularly true of reproductive health. There is…