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Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie was moved as she listened to refugees in northern Thailand explain the difficulties they have faced living in closed camps for two decades. She called on the Thai government to give them greater freedom of movement.
There are 111,000 registered refugees living along the Thai-Myanmar border. They are not allowed to leave their camps to work or receive higher education. Jolie was saddened to meet a 21-year-old woman who was born in a refugee camp and was now raising her own child in the same camp, having never been able to set foot outside it. "With no foreseeable chance that these refugees will soon be able to return to Burma [Myanmar], we must find some way to help them work and become self-reliant", she said.
UNHCR is working to give refugees in the camps the chance to sustain themselves through income-generation activities, non-formal education and vocational training. Angelina Jolie has made more than 20 visits to refugees around the world since she started to work with the UN refugee agency in 2001.
There are 111,000 registered refugees living along the Thai-Myanmar border. They are not allowed to leave their camps to work or receive higher education. Jolie was saddened to meet a 21-year-old woman who was born in a refugee camp and was now raising her own child in the same camp, having never been able to set foot outside it. "With no foreseeable chance that these refugees will soon be able to return to Burma [Myanmar], we must find some way to help them work and become self-reliant", she said.
UNHCR is working to give refugees in the camps the chance to sustain themselves through income-generation activities, non-formal education and vocational training. Angelina Jolie has made more than 20 visits to refugees around the world since she started to work with the UN refugee agency in 2001.
UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie shares a laugh with Karenni refugee children in Ban Mai Nai Soi camp in northern Thailand © UNHCR/K.McKinsey
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Angelina Jolie voices support for Myanmar refugees in northern Thailand camps
BAN MAI NAI SOI REFUGEE CAMP, Thailand, February 5 (UNHCR) – UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie has called on the Thai government to grant Myanmar refugees in northern Thailand greater freedom of movement, after spending a day listening to refugees tell of the difficulties they have faced in two decades of living in closed camps.
"I was saddened to meet a 21-year-old woman who was born in a refugee camp, who has never even been out of the camp and is now raising her own child in a camp," Jolie said after her visit Wednesday to Ban Mai Nai Soi camp, home to 18,111 mainly Karenni registered refugees, just three kms from the Myanmar border, near Mae Hong Son.
"With no foreseeable chance that these refugees will soon be able to return to Burma (Myanmar), we must find some way to help them work and become self reliant," she said.
The 111,000 registered refugees who live in nine camps in northern Thailand along the Thai-Myanmar border are not allowed to venture outside the camps to work or receive higher education.
In a thatched two-room house on stilts, Jolie sat down on the floor and chatted with refugee Ma Pai, a 44-year-old minority ethnic Kayan woman who has applied for resettlement to the United States.
At a boarding school for orphans and children separated from their parents, Jolie listened attentively as two teenage girls – sent across the border to the refugee camp by their parents for education – told of their fears that they might have to go back to Myanmar when they finish their schooling.
"I hope we can work with the Thai authorities to speed up the government admissions process and that you will not be forced to go back to Burma if danger remains," Jolie said.
The Thai government's Provincial Admissions Board, the only body that can grant refugee status to people fleeing fighting or persecution in Myanmar, has yet to process some 5,000 people who arrived in Mae Hong Son province in 2006 and 2007, the last time there was significant fighting in Kayah State just across the border. Throughout last year, people continued to trickle into Ban Mai Nai Soi and three other camps in the province, mostly fleeing forced labour and other human rights abuses.
One 26-year-old woman, Pan Sein, told Jolie she fled her village in Kayah State last November, and took a circuitous, hazardous journey on foot that finally brought her to the camp at the beginning of January.
"Weren't you scared to leave your parents and come on your own?" Jolie asked.
"Yes, I was scared," Pan Sein replied. "It was dangerous to flee, but even more dangerous to stay in my village."
Jolie's visit came at a time of worldwide attention to the large numbers of Rohingya migrants fleeing Myanmar's northern Rakhine state in rickety boats, and just after UNHCR gained access to 78 Rohingya boat people in detention in Ranong in southern Thailand.
"Visiting Ban Mai Nai Soi and seeing how hospitable Thailand has been to 111,000 mostly Karen and Karenni refugees over the years makes me hope that Thailand will be just as generous to the Rohingya refugees who are now arriving on their shores," Jolie said.
"I also hope the Rohingya situation stabilizes and their life in Myanmar improves so the people do not feel the desperate need to flee, especially considering how dangerous their journey has become," she added. "As with all people, they deserve to have their human rights respected."
By Kitty McKinsey
In Ban Mai Nai Soi Camp
BAN MAI NAI SOI REFUGEE CAMP, Thailand, February 5 (UNHCR) – UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie has called on the Thai government to grant Myanmar refugees in northern Thailand greater freedom of movement, after spending a day listening to refugees tell of the difficulties they have faced in two decades of living in closed camps.
"I was saddened to meet a 21-year-old woman who was born in a refugee camp, who has never even been out of the camp and is now raising her own child in a camp," Jolie said after her visit Wednesday to Ban Mai Nai Soi camp, home to 18,111 mainly Karenni registered refugees, just three kms from the Myanmar border, near Mae Hong Son.
"With no foreseeable chance that these refugees will soon be able to return to Burma (Myanmar), we must find some way to help them work and become self reliant," she said.
The 111,000 registered refugees who live in nine camps in northern Thailand along the Thai-Myanmar border are not allowed to venture outside the camps to work or receive higher education.
In a thatched two-room house on stilts, Jolie sat down on the floor and chatted with refugee Ma Pai, a 44-year-old minority ethnic Kayan woman who has applied for resettlement to the United States.
At a boarding school for orphans and children separated from their parents, Jolie listened attentively as two teenage girls – sent across the border to the refugee camp by their parents for education – told of their fears that they might have to go back to Myanmar when they finish their schooling.
"I hope we can work with the Thai authorities to speed up the government admissions process and that you will not be forced to go back to Burma if danger remains," Jolie said.
The Thai government's Provincial Admissions Board, the only body that can grant refugee status to people fleeing fighting or persecution in Myanmar, has yet to process some 5,000 people who arrived in Mae Hong Son province in 2006 and 2007, the last time there was significant fighting in Kayah State just across the border. Throughout last year, people continued to trickle into Ban Mai Nai Soi and three other camps in the province, mostly fleeing forced labour and other human rights abuses.
One 26-year-old woman, Pan Sein, told Jolie she fled her village in Kayah State last November, and took a circuitous, hazardous journey on foot that finally brought her to the camp at the beginning of January.
"Weren't you scared to leave your parents and come on your own?" Jolie asked.
"Yes, I was scared," Pan Sein replied. "It was dangerous to flee, but even more dangerous to stay in my village."
Jolie's visit came at a time of worldwide attention to the large numbers of Rohingya migrants fleeing Myanmar's northern Rakhine state in rickety boats, and just after UNHCR gained access to 78 Rohingya boat people in detention in Ranong in southern Thailand.
"Visiting Ban Mai Nai Soi and seeing how hospitable Thailand has been to 111,000 mostly Karen and Karenni refugees over the years makes me hope that Thailand will be just as generous to the Rohingya refugees who are now arriving on their shores," Jolie said.
"I also hope the Rohingya situation stabilizes and their life in Myanmar improves so the people do not feel the desperate need to flee, especially considering how dangerous their journey has become," she added. "As with all people, they deserve to have their human rights respected."
By Kitty McKinsey
In Ban Mai Nai Soi Camp
UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie shares a laugh with Karenni refugee children in Ban Mai Nai Soi camp. © UNHCR/K.McKinsey
and from CNN :
Quote
Angelina Jolie asks Thai government to aid refugees
BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie has asked Thailand to permit greater freedom for thousands of refugees stuck in camps after fleeing neighboring Myanmar, according to a U.N. statement released Friday.
Jolie and actor Brad Pitt traveled to a refugee camp in northern Thailand on Wednesday in effort to draw international attention to what the U.N. has called "restricted" movement of roughly 111,000 refugees housed in nine camps along the Thai-Myanmar border, the statement said.
Jolie has spent several years as a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. She said her passion for helping refugees, whom she calls "the most vulnerable people in the world," was sparked in 2001 during visits to Cambodia."
The U.N. estimates more than 5,000 people have fled to northern Thailand's Mae Hong Son province between 2006 and 2007.
A recent CNN investigation found evidence of the Thai army towing an apparent boatload of 190 Rohingya refugees -- a Muslim minority group from Myanmar -- out to sea, prompting Thai authorities to launch an investigation.
BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie has asked Thailand to permit greater freedom for thousands of refugees stuck in camps after fleeing neighboring Myanmar, according to a U.N. statement released Friday.
Jolie and actor Brad Pitt traveled to a refugee camp in northern Thailand on Wednesday in effort to draw international attention to what the U.N. has called "restricted" movement of roughly 111,000 refugees housed in nine camps along the Thai-Myanmar border, the statement said.
Jolie has spent several years as a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. She said her passion for helping refugees, whom she calls "the most vulnerable people in the world," was sparked in 2001 during visits to Cambodia."
The U.N. estimates more than 5,000 people have fled to northern Thailand's Mae Hong Son province between 2006 and 2007.
A recent CNN investigation found evidence of the Thai army towing an apparent boatload of 190 Rohingya refugees -- a Muslim minority group from Myanmar -- out to sea, prompting Thai authorities to launch an investigation.
Angellina Jolie and Brad Pitt visited refugees in northern Thailand on Wednesday
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