03Mar10 NCGUB: News on Migrants & Refugees- 3 Mar, 2010 (English & Burmese)

8/14/2019 03Mar10 NCGUB: News on Migrants & Refugees- 3 Mar, 2010 (English & Burmese)

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NCGUB: News on Migrants & Refugees- 3 March, 2010 (English & Burmese)

************************************************************* HEADLINES

************************************************************* NEWS ON MIGRANTS

Migrant workers in Thailand

Thais extend migrants deadline

Migrant workers in Thailand face deportation in large numbers

Bangkok Under Fire on Immigration Policy

Government Preparing to Force 500, 000 Underground Alien Workers Out of

the Country

Govt to deport 500,000 workers

Mahachai Migrants Eye PassportsThai Deportations Could Take Time

NEWS ON REFUGEESChina arranging refugee camps near Burma border

EU gives Myanmar 17 million euros in humanitarian aid

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NEWS ON MIGRANTS

*************************************************************Migrant workers in Thailand

Feb 25th 2010

Inhospitality

Life gets harder for Thailands guest-workers

THEY sew bras, peel shrimps, build blocks of flats and haul fishing-nets. In return,migrant workers in Thailand are paid poorly, if at all, and face exploitation and abuseat the hands of employers and the security forces. Up to 3m migrants, manyundocumented and mostly from Myanmar, fall into this category. So a scheme to startregistering this workforce and bring it into the legal fold sounds like a step forward.Migrants have been ordered to apply to their home countries for special passports sothat they can work legally in Thailand and, in theory, enjoy access to public services,such as health care.


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But the plan has run into practical and political difficulties, mostly among workersfrom Myanmar, who rightly fear their awful government and do not want to returnhome, even temporarily. Many are unaware of the registration drive. So the firstapplicants have come mostly from migrants from Laos and Cambodia, where theauthorities are more willing to help.

The Thai government says 400,000 Myanmar nationals have so far joined the process.Under pressure, the Thai government has reportedly modified its original deadline ofFebruary 28th for filing papers. Now that is the deadline only for migrants to fill in aform agreeing to go through the nationality verification process. They have until theend of March to submit forms to their home government.

But Thailand has not lifted its threat to arrest and deport migrants who do not complyby the new deadline. The government apparently believes that unregistered foreignersare a security threat. This raises the spectre of mass expulsions on a scale not seensince the 1990s. Jorge Bustamante, a United Nations official in Geneva dealing with

migrant rights, has said that this would breach Thailands human-rights obligations,since workers might also be asylum-seekers.

This argument is unlikely to sway a government that shows increasing contempt forrefugees. In December it expelled more than 4,000 Hmong to Laos, including 158refugees recognised as such by the UN. Most were packed off to a remote camp. AThai-government spokesman has claimed that the 158 refugees were happy to be inLaos. Foreign diplomats in Bangkok, still fuming over the expulsion, doubt it.

Kicking out millions of migrants who do dirty, low-paid jobs would be unpopularwith Thai companies. Too few locals are willing to take their place. Garment factoriesin Thai-Myanmar border towns such as Mae Sot would probably go bankrupt if theyhad to offer decent wages and benefits. Fisheries and plantations also depend onimported labour. The government, however, believes that deported workers wouldsoon be replaced by others eager to escape misery in Myanmar.

Not all foreign workers are under the radar; over 1.3m migrants registered in 2009 forwork permits under the old system. These are the workers whose nationality Thailandwants to verify first, before tackling the rest. But being a legal migrant in Thailandconfers few benefits. Workers are still at the mercy of employers who can cheat themof their wages and dismiss them summarily. Complaining can be futile or worse.

Workers face extortion, rape and even murder by the very officials supposed to beprotecting them, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW), a watchdog that thisweek released a report on the abuses suffered by migrants. It noted that officials treatthem like walking ATMs.

There is little reason to believe that holding a special passport would protect migrantsfrom rapacious cops and stingy employers, says HRWs Phil Robertson. Migrants willstill be unable to travel freely or organise into unions. In some provinces it is illegalfor them to use mobile phones. Labour-inspectors pay little heed.

Employers have the upper hand and can keep down labour costs, but at a price to

Thailands competitiveness. Surveys of Thai workers show a steady decline in theirproductivity, says Pracha Vasuprasat, an expert on migration at the International


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Labour Organisation. An abundance of poorly paid migrants means less incentive toupgrade to a more skilled workforce. Thailands is not the only Asian economyhooked on cheap labour. Neighbouring Malaysia also depends on millions of guest-workers. So much so that its home minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, has suggestedthat, to lessen the dependence, political refugees be allowed to work.

http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displayStory.cfm?story_id=15580824

************************************************************* Thais extend migrants deadline

MONDAY, 01 MARCH 2010 15:05 James O'Toole

THE deadline for Cambodians and other migrant workers in Thailand to initiate aprocess of nationality verification in order to renew their work permits has beenextended to Tuesday, a Thai rights group said, though concerns remain about thethreat of mass deportations potentially facing thousands of workers.

Sunday was to have been the deadline for Thailands 1.5 million registered migrantworkers to submit documents expressing their intent to participate in nationalityverification, allowing them to extend their work permits. Thailands Migrant JusticeProgramme (MJP) said in a statement Friday, however, that the deadline had beenextended by two days, citing documents from the Thai Ministry of Labour.

Thai government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said Sunday that he wasunaware of a change in the deadline, and that such logistics were the responsibility ofthe Ministry of Labour. Officials from Thailands Ministry of Labour could not be

reached for comment.

Following the deadline to initiate the nationality verification process, migrant workersin Thailand have until March 31 to submit biographical information to their homegovernments, allowing them to extend their work permits. The initiative, Bangkoksays, will allow Thailand to better regulate immigration and give migrant workersaccess to government services.

Nationality verification is open only to the 1.5 million workers, including more than100,000 from Cambodia, already registered to work in Thailand. Workers in Thailandillegally, as well as legal workers who do not submit to the nationality-verification

process, will be deported, Panitan said.

They are illegal workers. If they are arrested, they will be deported, he said, addingthat the policy is based on the international practice in every country.

Critics, however, say the policy has been instituted unnecessarily swiftly and providesno recourse for workers who have entered Thailand illegally.

It is addressing regular migrants and leaves out the irregular migrants, and that issomething that represents a threat of massive expulsions, with the obviousconsequences of violations of human rights. Thats a great concern to me, said Jorge

Bustamente, the UNs special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, in aninterview with Radio Australia last week.


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Andy Hall, director of the MJP, said Thailand has done little to inform workers aboutthe deadlines facing them, and that registration is too expensive for many in any case.

The Thai government has not published one page of information for workers about

the nationality-verification process, Hall said. They have not published any materialthat is suitable for migrant workers to allow them to understand the process.

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010030132825/National-news/thais-extend-migrants-deadline.html

************************************************************* Migrant workers in Thailand face deportation in large numbers

1 march, 2010 - 16:19 GMT

Hundreds of thousands of migrant workers in Thailand face arrest and

deportation unless they meet the 2 March deadline to register with authorities.

The registration is compulsory for all workers who have work permits. They will haveto verify their nationality with local employment offices.

Critics say the registration system is difficult to understand and instructions are nottranslated into ethnic migrant workers' language.

The Thai authorities say the program is a path to legal work under the protection ofnational labour laws that were previously denied to undocumented workers.

The majority of migrant workers in Thailand are Burmese and it is reported that only1.3 million out of more than 2 million of them are registered.

Human rights activists say many Burmese avoid registering because of the lack ofawareness and fears of possible repercussions by the military government.

Andy Hall is the director of the Migrants Justice Programme for the Human Rightsand Development Foundation.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/news/2010/03/100301_thai_migrant_workers.sht

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************************************************************* Bangkok Under Fire on Immigration Policy

MARCH 1, 2010, 11:21 A.M. ET, By PATRICK BARTA

New Rules, Which Demand Compliance by March 2, Could Cause Massive

Deportation of Migrant Workers

Pressure is mounting on Thai authorities to rescind or delay new immigration rulesthat could cause hundreds of thousands of migrant workers to face deportation and

drive up business costs in one of Southeast Asia's most important economies, human-rights workers say.


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Migrant workers from Myanmar were on the job in a shrimp factory in Mahachai, onthe outskirts of Bangkok on Thursday.

The rules, which demand compliance by Tuesday and which require some 1.5 millionmigrants to register with Thai authorities and prove their nationalities, or be kicked

out, are adding to recent concerns about overreliance on imported labor in Asia'swealthier countries.

Other countries in the region, including Malaysia, Singapore and Korea, haveincreasingly drawn on low-cost foreign workers to help them stay competitive withChina and India. Malaysian palm-oil plantation owners count heavily on labor fromBangladesh or Nepal to keep wages low.

In Thailand, textile manufacturers and fishing fleetstwo industries that heavily relyon foreign laboruse workers from Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and elsewhere.

Although precise data on such undocumented workers are unavailable, human-rightsgroups say they now account for roughly 5% to 10% of Thailand's work force.

As the number of migrants has grown, though, host countries have become moreworried about backlash from local residents, who fear foreign labor is keeping localwages down. Officials say they also are concerned foreigners could pose securitythreats or health risks, since some come from countries with high rates of HIV orother diseases.

Thailand is emerging as the latest battleground. The country has long requiredmigrant workers to register with the government. But now, authorities are asking themto undergo a considerably more onerous and time-consuming registration thatinvolves verifying the migrants' identities with their home governmentssomethingmany workers are afraid to do because they fear it could subject them to punishmentsor penalties back home.

The goal of Thai authorities is to get a more reliable record of who is in the country atany given time, expand worker protections and tighten supervision, includingensuring workers have vaccinations.

The deadline for compliance, initially Feb. 28, was extended to March 2 after several

hundred thousand migrants failed to appear. Workers who don't comply are subject toarrest and deportation, though it remains unclear when that process will start. In oneconcession, officials have said that workers who start the process now can finish thepaperwork later, though they have also insisted they will take a hard line againstanyone found to be intentionally avoiding the process.

Human-rights groups say as many as 700,000 of the 1.5 million or so migrantscovered by the rule will refuse to comply, based on conversations they've had withThai officials about current participation rates. A Thai government spokesman says hedoubts the number is that high, but acknowledges at least several hundred thousandlikely still haven't taken part.


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Even a small reduction in the number of migrant workers could affect Thailand'scompetitiveness, analysts say, at a time when it is just beginning to recover from theworld-wide economic crisis. Employers say they already are experiencing laborshortages, and will need more migrants to keep textile mills and other low-wagebusinesses, such as farm work or seafood processing, humming.

"Thai people don't want these jobs," says Amnart Nantaharn, deputy secretary generalof the Federation of Thai Industries. Every sector of the Thai economy needs moremigrant workers, he says.

Human-rights groups, meanwhile, say migrants have plenty of reasons to feardeclaring themselves, including a history of past mistreatment by Thai authorities.Cases of arbitrary arrest and rape are detailed in a report released last week by NewYork-based Human Rights Watch. In some cases, activists allege, Thai authoritiesforce migrants to pay bribes to avoid deportation.

On Thursday, police said Thai troops fire on a pickup truck carrying Myanmarmigrants, killing three passengers, Reuters reported. The police said the driver washeading toward authorities near a border with Myanmar and refused to halt.

Other migrant workers worry that information about their activities will be sharedwith their governments in Myanmar, Laos or Cambodia, subjecting them to possibleproblems if they return home or their families to harassment.

"We recognize the right of the government to monitor immigration," says PhilRobertson, a deputy director of Human Rights Watch. "We just want them to do it ina way that prevents human-rights abuses against migrants."

Thai authorities say they are investigating the reports of abuse. They say the newregistration process will ultimately help reduce such problems by formalizingworkers' status and rights under Thai law.

"That is exactly why we need them to come forward and be protected, so they're notunderground," says Panitan Wattanayagorn, a Thai government spokesman. He sayshe doesn't think higher costs for businesses "is much of an issue" but added thegovernment will consider possible economic downsides as it considers howaggressively to enforce the rule.

Thailand isn't the only country in the region grappling with how to tighten rules onforeign workers without driving too many of them away. Last month, after complaintsfrom local residents, Singapore said it would raise fees on employers who useoverseas labor. Malaysia has cracked down on the movement of some migrants after aU.S. State Department report last year accused the country of allowing humantrafficking, often for the purpose of bringing overseas workers in for forced labor.Malaysian authorities have said they don't condone trafficking and are dealing withthe problem.Tighter controls could help Thailand and the foreign workers in the longrun, says Christopher Bruton, an analyst at Dataconsult Ltd., a Bangkok advisory firm.Wages will likely have to rise and some businesses will "probably close or go over the

border" to remain competitive if many migrant workers return home, he says. Butrelying on cheap labor tends to promote inefficiencies in businesses, he says, and


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forcing companies to accept somewhat higher wages could ultimately make them runbetter and be more competitive.

Wilawan Watcharasakwet and Celine Fernandez contributed to this article.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703940704575089091156855482.html

************************************************************* Government Preparing to Force 500, 000 Underground Alien Workers Out of

the Country2

ndMarch 2010 8:02pm Matichon Online

Mr. Supat Guukhun, Deputy Director General of the Employment Department, hasthis evening given reflections on the update in relation to requests for extensions ofwork permits and entering into the nationality verification process for alien workers.On 2nd March 2010, which was the final day, the Alien Workers ManagementCommittee reported that 707, 246 alien workers from Burma, Cambodia and Laoshave come forward to request work permit extensions. This is out of a total of 1, 315,932 persons. 536, 074 workers have handed in their requests for nationalityverification. 168, 688 persons have completed the nationality verification process andreceived their temporary passport. Hence there are a total of 650, 746 alien workerswho have yet to enter into the nationality verification system. As a result, theEmployment Department is sure that at least 20% of alien workers shall not comeforward to request extension of their work permits and shall not enter into thenationality verification process, or about 260, 000 persons. Hence coordination andliaison with the Immigration Department shall be undertake in order to send a list ofthese persons names to the immigration authorities to arrest, detain and deport thesepersons from the country.

Unofficial Translation by HRDFs Migrant Justice Programme

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Govt to deport 500,000 workers

March 3, 2010, Chularat Saengpassa

Gothom urges authorities to be lenient with the Burmese

Starting from today, relevant authorities are getting ready to deport about half amillion Burmese, Laotian and Cambodian workers because they failed to seek newwork permits and/or submit requests for nationality verification within the deadline.

Yesterday was the last day for the 1.3 million or so Burmese, Laotian and Cambodianpeople working in Thailand to hand over requests or applications to the authorities.This is a mandatory step for workers who have already registered in Thailand's labourmarket in recent years.

"We will not be lenient," Employment Department's deputy director-general SupatGukun said yesterday referring to workers who missed the deadline.

He added that his department would work closely with the police and the ImmigrationBureau in enforcing the law.

"We will have to arrest and deport those alien workers who have not kept in line withprescribed procedures," Supat said, pointing out that under the procedure, registeredaliens would be given access to legal protection and welfare.

Moreover, Supat insisted the nationality-verification process was not verycomplicated.

"For extra convenience, employers can hire one of the 12 certified private companiesto handle the task of verifying the nationality of their workers for no more thanBt5,000 per head," he added.

Many employers have sought the service, with the companies earning more than atotal of Bt1 billion.

The nationality-verification process has recently been made mandatory, in addition tothe long-existing requirement for alien workers to carry a work permit.

The process has two main steps:

l Employers fill nationality-verification forms and submit them to the Labour Ministry,which will then forward these documents to the governments of Burma, Laos andCambodia for verification.

l Once the documents are verified, the alien workers can return home to get passports.Thailand has given alien workers until 2012 to get their passports.

Since work permits issued to alien workers expire on March 2, they all had untilyesterday to renew their permits.

Meanwhile, Human Rights and Development Foundation chairman Gothom Arya


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yesterday urged the government to not deport the alien workers who failed to meet theMarch 2 deadline.

"Some Burmese workers feel their lives are at risk if they have to go back to theircountry. Political and ethnical conflicts are still going on there," he said.

He also urged the government to extend the deadline for registered alien workers'nationality verification.

Gothom said if Thai authorities refused to extend the deadline, many Burmeseworkers would simply go underground and live here illegally.

"Some corrupt officials might then exploit these people," he said.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/home/2010/03/03/national/Govt-to-deport-500000-workers-30123814.html

************************************************************* Mahachai Migrants Eye Passports

By SAW YAN NAING Wednesday, March 3, 2010

MAHACHAI, ThailandA dozen migrant workers sit around chatting openly inBurmese outside the National Verification (NV) office in Mahachai near Bangkok.Others queue inside for the migrants' version of a passporta traveldocument recognized by the Thai authorities.

The NV office is located near the port in Mahachai in Samut Sakorn Province, whichis home to the largest per capita population of Burmese migrants in Thailand,estimated to be about 200,000 of the two to three million Burmese in the country.Most migrants in Mahachai work in the fisheries depots at the port.

The registration process supposedly offers the migrants the opportunity to travel inThailand without fear of deportation. The document also serves the purpose of actingas a first step toward obtaining a work permit for Thailand's migrants, the majority ofwhom are Burmese, but also include thousands of Laotians, Cambodians.

Ko Tu, a Burmese migrant in Mahachai who works with the Human Rights and

Development Foundation (HRDF), a labor rights group that assists Burmese migrantworkers in Thailand, said the area around the NV office has recently becomesomewhat of a community center for Burmese workers.

He said the migrant workers are now more confident about registering for documentsat the NV office, whereas previously they had been nervous about payments, arrestand deportation.

Ko Tu said the HRDF helps to educate the migrants about the NV process and toconvince them that it is safe.


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Ko Zaw, a Burmese migrant worker who works in a seafood factory in Mahachai, saidthat Burmese Home Minister Maung Oo had visited his factory on Saturday andencouraged him and other Burmese workers to apply for migrant passports.

Speaking with The Irrawaddy, Ko Zaw said, Maung Oo asked why hadn't we applied

for passports. 'Go and apply, he said. 'It is safe and you won't be arrested or chargedtax on your income.'

He [Maung Oo] also said that if we were threatened or asked for tax, we should letthe authorities know and they would take action, he added.

Maung Oo reportedly also told migrants that the Burmese authorities will soon openone more NV center in Three Pagodas Pass on the Thai-Burmese border.

There are currently three registration centers on the Thai-Burmese borderatKawthaung, Myawaddy and Tachilek.

Maung Oo also said that the Burmese authorities will extend the NV process so that1,000 people a day can register at each center, said migrants in Mahachai.

March 2 is the deadline for the NV registration, but some rights groups have said thedeadline has been unofficially extended to the end of March.

Ko Tu said that some Burmese migrant workers are still nervous about registering.They have very negative views about the NV process, he said.

He said that migrant workers have benefits if they hold an NV passportsuch asbeing able to buy a motorbike or a car, traveling around Thailand without having tobribe their way through checkpoints and living without the constant fear of arrest bythe Thai police.

Many migrant workers have claimed that their Thai employers refuse to be involvedin the NV registration process, in which case they have to pay a large fee to agents.

Ko Zaw said that each migrant must pay about 8,000 baht (US $265) through an agentwhen they apply at the NV office in Mahachai, but only 3,000 baht ($100) if theyapply through their employer.

http://www.irrawaddy.org/highlight.php?art_id=17938

************************************************************* Thai Deportations Could Take Time

MARCH 3, 2010, By WILAWAN

WATCHARASAKWET And PATRICK BARTA

A Thai government official said authorities intend to stick to a Tuesday deadline for

new immigration rules that could result in the deportation of hundreds of thousands of

migrant workers who don't comply.


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But it could take some time before any deportations begin, said Karun Kitpun, head of

the national verification division of Thailand's Ministry of Labor. The government has

to compile data on the number of migrant workers who failed to comply, then

determine how best to handle them, he said.

"The government will decide later how to enforce the rule of law on these people," he

said.

Human-rights groups have blasted the program, which requires some 1.5 million

migrantsmainly from Myanmar, Cambodia and Laosto register with Thai

authorities and prove their nationalities, or be deported. Although Thailand has long

required migrant workers to register with the government, the newer program calls on

migrants to undergo a more time-consuming process that involves verifying their

identities with their home governments.

The goal of the effort is to help authorities get a better record of who is in the country,

expand protections for the workers and tighten supervision. But many workers are

afraid to participate because they fear doing so could subject them to punishments or

penalties in their home countries.

Others fear hassles at the hands of Thai police, who rights groups have said

sometimes request bribes to prevent deportation, among other abuses. Thai authorities

have said they are investigating the complaints.

It remained unclear Tuesday how many migrants had failed to begin the process,

though Thai officials and human-rights groups have said in recent days the total was

expected to be at least several hundred thousand people.

Mr. Karun said that workers who didn't apply by Tuesday for an extension of their

work permits as part of the process would become illegal, but that it would take

awhile to determine exactly how many failed to do so.

Mr. Karun said workers who did start the process by Tuesday would have additional

time to submit some of the documents to verify their identity, as announced earlier by

Thai authorities.

Many Thai businesses, especially textile manufacturers and agricultural operations,

rely heavily on the migrant workers to help keep wages low and their businesses

competitive with India and China.

Human-rights groups say the workers now account for roughly 5% to 10% of

Thailand's work force.

Write to Patrick Barta at [email protected]


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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703807904575096992035056352.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLTopStories

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NEWS ON REFUGEES

************************************************************* China arranging refugee camps near Burma border

Tuesday, 02 March 2010 KNG

China is planning to set up refugee camps, for both Burmese and Chinese citizens, inthe countrys southwest Yunnan province, bordering northern Burma, sources near theborder said.

The camps will be located in the Longchuan River Valley, Longchuan (orNshawn inKachin) County, in Dehong Dai Jinghpo (or Kachin in Burmese) Autonomous

Prefecture, Kachin residents of Longchuan said.

They said the Chinese government is also planning to feed the arriving refugees andintends to provide every refugee living in the camps with 8 Chinese Yuan (US$1.14)per day.

Thousands of acres of sugar cane on both sides along the two countries border arebeing quickly cut down and harvested, because of concerns expressed by the ChineseBorder authority about renewed armed conflict, according to farm owners in the area.

The camps will accept ethnic Kachin people who live along the border who will flee

if the civil war resumes between the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) andBurmas ruling junta, because of failed negotiations about the formation of a BorderGuard Force, residents of the area said.

Tensions have gradually increased between the KIO and the Burmese junta near theKIO territories in Kachin and Northeast Shan State, after the February 28 deadlineexpired for the KIO to transform its armed-wing, the Kachin Independence Army(KIA), into the junta-controlled Border Guard Force, according to KIA officers in thefrontlines.

On the deadline day, about 300 Burmese troops were secretly transported to a military

base in Sin Lum Bum, the strategic army base near KIA battalion No. 15 and 3rdbrigade command, based in Maijayang, near the China border, a reliable local sourcetold Kachin News Group today.

In mid February, Burmese troops who had been deployed to Karen State were recalledto their native army battalions in Bhamo, Kachin State, according to sources close toBurmese battalions in that area.

KIA sources said all troops in the two states have been put on high alert to defendagainst attacks by Burmese troops.

Yesterday, the KIO began its crucial central committee meeting (or Ginjaw KomitiHkum Ra Zuphpawng in Kachin language), at Laiza Headquarters, in Kachin State,


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near the China border.

It is expected to make a final decision on acceptance of the juntas proposal on theformation of the BGF, according to central committee members.

http://www.kachinnews.com/News/China-arranging-refugee-camps-near-Burma-border.html

************************************************************* EU gives Myanmar 17 million euros in humanitarian aid

Mar 2, 2010, 9:24 GMT

Bangkok - The European Union announced Tuesday the allocation of 17.25 millioneuros (23.4 million dollars) in humanitarian aid for Myanmar's 'vulnerable people' thisyear.

Most of the aid, to be provided through the European Commission's HumanitarianAid department (ECHO), is to go to ethnic minority groups living in Myanmar'sfrontier areas and refugees located in camps in Thailand, the EU office in Bangkoksaid.

'Vulnerable communities, especially those living in the remote border areas, continueto be in dire need of assistance,' EU Ambassador in Bangkok David Lipman said.

'The objective of ECHO's activities in Burma/Myanmar is solely humanitarian, and itwill address the most pressing needs of people at risk,' he said.

An estimated 1.2 million people are expected to benefit directly from the support,which is due to see 9.25 million euros allocated to health and food programmes inremote rural frontier areas in the Rakhine, Shan, Mon, Kayah and Kayin states andThanintaryi divisions of Myanmar, which was once known as Burma.

The remaining 8 million euros is to go to 150,000 Karen refugees living in camps inThailand.

The EU has been funding relief programmes in Myanmar, a pariah state amongWestern democracies, since 1994.


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ECHO opened an office in Yangon in October 2005 to help the delivery of Europeanhumanitarian aid to the military-run country.

Myanmar has faced economic sanctions on Western aid, trade and investments since

its army's brutal crackdown on a pro-democracy movement in 1988 that left anestimated 3,000 people dead.

During 2008 to 2009, the EU provided 39 million euros in emergency support toassist the survivors of Cyclone Nargis, which smashed into the central IrrawaddyDelta area in May 2008, leaving 140,00 people dead or missing.

Read more:http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/asiapacific/news/article_1537770.php/EU-gives-Myanmar-17-million-euros-in-humanitarian-aid#ixzz0h1XZx7eN

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The Nation

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03Mar10 NCGUB: News on Migrants & Refugees- 3 Mar, 2010 (English & Burmese)