HEADLINES
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NEWS ON MIGRANTS
Thai education reform to benefit Burmese migrants
NEWS ON REFUGEES
UNHCR Registered Burmese Refugees In Malaysia
85 Percent of Chins in Debt
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NEWS ON MIGRANTS
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Thai education reform to benefit Burmese migrants
June 26, 2009 (DVB)
Burmese migrants and refugees living on the periphery of Thai society could benefit from the Thai government’s new plans to strengthen its education policy for migrant and stateless children in the country.
Thailand hosts some 3.5 million stateless persons, the majority of which are Burmese who have fled conflict in the country or who come to Thailand to find employment. Around 80 per cent of labour migrants are Burmese.
Currently all children, except those living in refugee camps, are ostensibly entitled to be educated in Thai schools regardless of their nationality.
The cost of schooling and transportation can often prevent migrant children from attending, and poses particular problems for the estimated 500,000 children born to Burmese parents in Thailand.
Speaking on the World Day Against Child Labour earlier this month, Thailand’s deputy education minister, Chaiwut Bannawat, spoke of the government’s plan to improve its ‘education for all’ policy to better include migrant and stateless children.
Problems with the feasibility for migrant children attending school are compounded by the transient lifestyle of their parents, who often move from place to place in search of work.
“Some migrant communities are very mobile; construction site workers don’t stay in one place, they work on a construction site for three months and then move to another area, so it is difficult for the families to put the children to school, ” said Jackie Pollock, director of the Migrant Assistance Programme (MAP) Foundation.
“Many migrant parents are afraid to put children on a school bus or something, because they have heard about trafficking and they are scared they won’t see their children again.”
In areas of northern Thailand, such as Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and Mae Sot, active NGO’s and departments of education mean migrant children have a good chance of accessing education.
In Bangkok, however, where only an estimated 200 registered migrant children are studying, the problem becomes more worrying.
“There are areas where thousands and thousands of children are falling through this system,” said Pollock.
It remains unclear what exactly the government is planning to do, but, said Pollock, officials may look into giving some legal status to the migrant learning centers while improving the current system for migrant children in Thai schools.
http://english.dvb.no/news.php?id=2659
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NEWS ON REFUGEES
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UNHCR Registered Burmese Refugees In Malaysia
Van Biak Thang
24 June, 2009
The UNHCR paid a visit to Malaysia’s Belitik camp where more than 40 detained Burmese refugees were interviewed and given UN Registration last week, it emerged.
More than 40 out of about 200 Burmese detainees interviewed got registered as recognised refugees during a five-day visit to the camp by the UN, according to a confirmed source.
“There are five Burmese mothers with babies in the detention camp and one of them is from Tungtuang village, Tonzang Township, Chin State. Most of the registered refugees are of Arakan, Rohingya and Mon people from Burma. Only 6 Chin refugees, who reported to the UN team, got registered during this visit,” added the source.
It is claimed that there are about 20 Chin refugees being detained at the Belitik camp.
Meanwhile, the UNHCR has been criticised for stopping its registration of vulnerable refugees including pregnant women, children and elderly people since early May this year, and for delay in taking action to resume its Mobile Registration.
Amid difficulties, slow registration process by the UNHCR has been seen as having bad impacts on the mental condition of many refugees, resulting in frustration and depression. At least three suicides have been committed within this year in Malaysia.
On 18 June 2009, the UNHCR said it will assist in providing some basic needs for Burmese refugees after making a visit to Kajang prison in Malaysia.
More than an estimated 30,000 Chin refugees and asylum-seekers have been stranded in Malaysia after fleeing brutalities and persecutions constantly inflicted upon them in their native places by Burma’s military dictatorship.
In addition, the SPDC-ignored food crisis caused by bamboo-and-rat-related phenomenon in Chin State prompted the Chin people to flee into neighbouring countries in search of refuge and safety.
http://www.chinlandguardian.com/index.php/Home/470
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85 Percent of Chins in Debt
By LAWI WENG Thursday, June 25, 2009
Eighty-five percent of people in Chin State are in debt to local moneylenders after taking loans to buy food, according to an officer with the World Food Program (WFP) in Rangoon.
Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Thursday, WFP officer Siddharth Krishnaswamy said, “The Chins are constantly facing food insecurity. They are unable to pay for food, health and education as they have to pay off their debts.”
Based on data collected by the WFP in May from seven townships in Chin State, villagers in the areas of Htantlang, Tiddim and Tonzang are the worst affected, a WFP report said.
The report said that a decline in agriculture had led to a lack of food and employment in Chin State.
Joseph Win Hlaing Oo, a director of the Country Agency for Rural Development (CAD), a nongovernmental organization based in Rangoon, said that people in Chin State generally worked for six months, but then only had enough money for three months’ food.
He said the crisis had been caused by an infestation of rats followed by a drought in the area.
The CAD has initiated a “Food for Work” project in three townships: Haka, Lantalang and Matupi. The project encourages the communities to build roads and restore agriculture.
He said that the project could only help 30,000 people and there were an estimated 200,000 people in the three townships.
The Burmese military government put a ban on aid to the Chin, instead insisting that development work had to be undertaken in return for food.
“The people are not very happy because they only get food as a reward for their work,” said Joseph Win Hlaing Oo. “But they also need money for health and education.”
Van Lian Thang, a representative of the Chin Union Council, said that in Matupi Township there are many people who struggle through the day without enough food.
He said he expected more people to be affected with food insecurity during the rainy season because of the difficulties connected with traveling to the Indian border to buy supplies.
The group has accused the Burmese authorities of banning ethnic Chin people from receiving food supplies donated by Burmese in foreign countries.
A report by the WFP said 75 percent of the crops in the area had been destroyed by rats and 30 percent of the villagers surveyed had been forced to abandon their fields.
The rat infestation began in December 2007 in Chin State, causing hundreds of Chin families to flee to the Indian border where they sought to enter the country illegally to find work.
According to a Mizoram-based Chin relief group, the Chin Famine Emergency Relief Committee, about 100,000 of the 500,000 people in Chin State have experienced food shortages. It said that many people were surviving on boiled rice, fruit and vegetables.
At an average altitude of 4,000 feet (1,250 meters), Chin State is mountainous and isolated. The main livelihood of people is agriculture-mainly rice paddy-which is performed on a shifting cultivation or “slash and burn farming” basis.
Experts have said that a famine occurs about every 50 years in Chin State when the flowering of a native species of bamboo gives rise to an explosion in the rat population, which feed on the plant.
http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=16187
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