1st January, 2010 (Friday)
? Minimum wage workers will get a very modest wage rise on New Year’s Day, when an increase in the minimum pay rate in Phuket increases from 197 baht to 204 baht. Workers in Bangkok will enjoy the highest minimum wage, 206 baht. The lowest rates still can be found in Phrae and Phayao, where the minimum wage increased one baht to 151 baht per day.
? According to the references of US foreign affair, Los Angeles Times newspaper writes birthday of many refugees is on 1st January of the year. Many of refugees do not know exactly the birthday of their, so that 1st January is noted for them. In US, 10,000 out of 80,000 refugees’ birthday is 1st January.
4th January, 2010 (Monday)
? Bridging Educational Access to Migrants (BEAM) school for higher education is opened in Chiang Mai today. The program is two years study program for 40 students per year and in which students can study Social study, Mathematics, Science, and English in Burmese language teaching style in first year period and in second year period students have to focus General Education Development (GED) curriculum with English language teaching style.
5th January, 2009 (Tuesday)
? Burmese people who are staying in Thai Burma border of Maesot area can be able to listen “public radio” program in Burmese language on coming Monday, said Map foundation.
? Burmese, who have been staying, in border town Cox’s Bazar of Bangladesh are being arrested by local authority, said confirmed source.
? US government is going to review and take action to solve the hardship of refugees who have come to America and been facing many obstacles, according to The Salt Lake Tribune newspaper.
6th October, 2009 (Tuesday)
? Century Miracle Jordan (CMJ) company’s Burmese workers from Jordan are forced to give compensation and go back to own country, after they have conflict with Bangladesh workers in yesterday. In yesterday conflict, Bangladesh workers used and fight with iron sticks, so that some Burmese girls got injuries. Even though Burmese workers requested company authority to lay out those 4 Bangladesh workers who used violence in conflict, they were denied and ordered to follow that decision. In that company, about 600 Burmese girls have been working for 3 years contract.
? Fund raising concert for children and women who are staying along the border area for that favorite Karen singers join and sing, is held at Thai Burma border township Maesot today.
? Mon human rights foundation, HURFOM, said SPDC army has been using young women as porter too when they force to Karen villagers for their military operations in Tenasserim division, south eastern part of Burma.
7th January, 2010 (Thursday)
? Dhaka: 39 Burmese citizens were arrested by Bangladesh police in the border town Cox’s Bazar over the past two days for illegally entering the country, according to an official report.
?To raise funds for Cyclone Nargis hit victims some Burmese nationals residing in Japan are shooting a Burmese film called “A Lwan Myar Hnint Irrawaddy”, which in English is “The Remembrance and Irrawaddy”.
?More than 80 percent of households have already been in debt as they borrow money to buy food, according to a survey conducted in Thantlang and Rezua Townships of Burma’s Chin State in 2009 by CAD (Country Agency for Rural Development).
?Trade in women’s hair in Burma has boomed in the last five years as people look for a new way to make ends meet, particularly in the wake of the devastation wrought by cyclone Nargis.
?Kutupalong, Bangladesh: The security officer of the UNHCR controlled Arakanese Rohingya refugee camp of Kutupalong, Sub Inspector Shafourdin demolished the primary school of the unregistered camp this morning without reason, said an elder refugee who has three school going children.
? 30 refugees, who will be accepted to settle in Japan, are going to leave in coming September.
8th January, 2010 (Friday)
? A salary increase for civil service workers in Burma is necessary but will severely strain the country’s budget and “damage the public”, a Burmese trade union coalition has said.
?Thai social workers have urged the government to find a solution for a large number of missing children less than 18 years in the country. Bangkok-based, Information Center of Missing Person to anti-human Trafficking, The Mirror Foundation, released a report on Thursday, which revealed that the there are about 1,000 reported missing children in Thailand since 2005. Those who could not be found is about 63 per cent of a total of 1,600 missing, both children and adults.
10th January, 2010 (Sunday)
?Thai soldiers arrested several Myanmar job brokers and 30 illegal Myanmar workers at a house in the southern province of Chumphon on Sunday. A unit of 15 troops led by Maj Thanaphan Sukprasert raided a house in Tha Sae district in Chumphon on a tip that it accommodated illegal migrant workers en route to work in other areas. They detained 16 male and 14 female workers. Two Myanmar nationals, identified only as Mr So and Ms. Sor, working as job brokers in a illegal labour gang were also arrested.
12th January, 2010 (Tuesday)
? A Burmese couple, who were recently reunited with their baby daughter after allegedly abandoning her twice, has fled their workers’ camp and are believed to be heading back to Burma. Residents of the camp said the couple and their baby had vanished by Sunday morning. The camp, comprised of corrugated tin shacks, houses workers at the Supalai City Hill project in Ban Kuku, northeast of Phuket City.
?A new pledge of WFP (World Food Programme) to continue providing relief asssistance to mautam-hit Chin victims has been welcomed and received as a ‘New Year hope’ by Chin people across the globe. Recently, Mizoram-based CFERC (Chin Famine Emergency Relief Committee) said that a total of 11,507 rice acres and 4,316 corn fields have been destroyed by the rats in Paletwa Township, the worst-affected area in Southern Chin State.
?The founder-cum-president of a non-profit Christian charitable organisation called ‘i Love Myanmar’ was awarded ‘Myanmah Luatlatyi Kungyi Mawkuinwin’ for her humanitarian works in the country on Independence Day, 4 January 2010.
?Over 17,000 refugees from Thailand were resettled in a third country in 2009 with support from the International Organization for Migration. The IOM in a press release on Tuesday said that since 2004, the total number of refugees shifted from Thailand’s refugee camps to new homes abroad, accounted for over 74,000. The majority of the refugees over 57,000 or nearly 80 per cent came from Burma, and belonged to the Karen and Karenni ethnic groups.
14th January, 2010 (Thursday)
? There is no let up in the sufferings of the Chin people. The Mara armed group is now collecting money from Chin people, who are suffering from the affects of a famine in some villages of Paletwa Township in southern Chin state, western Burma. The armed group collected Kyat 8 lakhs each from the Wadaikung and Wyaiwa villages, which is five days journey from Paletwa town from 15 to 20 December 2009, a report said.
? Migrant workers will not be extended their work permit if they do not fill the national verification form, said officials. Mr. Somchai Chumrat, general secretary of minister of labour, said in his letter that replied to migrant affair organizations those recently asked to minister of labour to be clear process for national verification process.
? After a nine-day cease work in the wake of a brawl inside the premises nearly 600 Burmese workers of the Century Miracle Ltd. Textile Company in Jordan’s Ar Ramtha resumed work on Thursday. Nayef Obeidat, the Administrative Manager of the company, told Mizzima on Friday that the issue had been resolved and the Burmese women workers resumed work after the Burmese Ambassador to Israel visited and intervened.
? 30 victims of human trafficking were transferred to Burmese authority from China in yesterday. During the transferring, both authorities were quarreling for beating to the victims by Chinese authorities. Totally over 290 victims have been already transferred to Burma in 2009, Yangon based Weekly Elevn journals said.
?33 children have been saved by Bangladesh police from the human trafficking gang at Bibdrabin township, Chitakaung area, in yesterday. The children are Rakhine Marma nationality from the Tansate township, Bindrabin district of Burma Bangladesh border.
15th January, 2010 (Friday)
? Nearly 60,000 Burmese migrant workers in Thailand, whose migrant registration cards are due to expire on Jan 20, could be deported if they do not get work permits within the next few days or if the Thai government does not quickly change its policy to allow them to stay, according to leading rights groups in Thailand. “Many of the 59,228 migrant workers [whose cards expire on Jan. 20] have not applied for nationality verification. If the Thai government does not extend their registration cards for one more year, they could be deported,” said Andy Hall, the director of the Migrant Justice Programme (MJP), based in Bangkok.
18th January, 2010 (Monday)
? Thirty-six human rights organizations in Thailand have sent an open letter to Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva expressing concern about the possible mass deportation of migrant workers if the government fails to renew work permits scheduled to expire soon. In an open letter on Monday, the groups asked the prime minister if his government will deport or renew work permit to migrants workers. “We would be most concerned if your government decides to adopt a policy to not renew work permits and deport migrants,” said the letter.
?The Migrant Assistance Program Foundation (MAP), a Thailand-based NGO, launched a FM radio station last week in the Mae Sot border area aimed at entertaining and educating migrant workers. The station, located in the MAP office, airs daily from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and can be heard within a 15 km radius from the radio station on 102.5 FM.
?By Takaloo, Cox’s Bazar: A Burmese urban refugee woman reported that she was beaten on Monday by a local man while she was alone collecting firewood in a jungle near Bwaidawpara Village in Cox’s Bazar in southern Bangladesh. The victim identified herself as 30-year-old Hla Kra San, aka Gontala Htayri, who holds a UNHCR refugee identification card with Ref. No. 393-08C00055 and is the mother of a four-month old infant.
?China Press newspaper revealed that confirmation of prime minister’s speech in which all illegal workers in Malaysia will be arrested in the beginning of February, 2010.
19th January, 2010 (Tuesday)
?With the number of migrants registering for passports still extremely poor, the period for Burmese migrants to apply for passports has been extended to two years from the earlier eight months by Thailand.
?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.”
?The governor of Tak Province warned Burmese humanitarian workers in Mae Sot on Tuesday that if they become involved in Burmese political affairs they could be deported, according to Burmese sources in Mae Sot. Gov. Samart Loyfa told at a press conference on Tuesday, “There are humanitarian workers involved in politics and [they have] formed organizations illegally. We need to investigate. If we find any violations of law, we have to kick them out of the country.”
20th January, 2009 (Wednesday)
? Police from the refugee camp providing security to UN sheltered refugees arrested seven Arakanese Rohingya refugees from Nayapara camp today, at about 1 pm, while they were going to the market, said a refugee.
21st January, 2010 (Thursday)
?Even as migrant workers in Ranong province have begun to apply for driving licenses, Thai residents in Ranong pointed out that the difference between driving lanes in Thailand and Burma may cause confusion among migrants and increase the accident rate. About 100 Burmese migrant workers in Ranong province in Southern Thailand, on the border with Kawthong in Burma have applied for driving licenses ever since the Department of Transport allowed migrants to access licenses late last year.
?Chalong Police continue to scour Burmese labor camps on Phuket in search of a woman wanted in connection with the death of an infant left in her care by a Thai businesswoman last week. For the previous report of how four-month-old Pornprasert Phromraksa was found dead by his mother on Saturday morning.
?Reports of rights gained by migrants who have successfully registered for temporary passports has spurred registration for the temporary passport by Burmese migrant workers, according to migrants and assisting NGOS. According to Mon migrant worker from an ice factory Maharchai (Samutsakorn), Thailand, migrant workers increasingly believe in the registration process for the temporary passport, after seeing and hearing from others who have already gotten passports and exercised rights guaranteed to them under the Thai/Burma temporary passport system.
?A truck carrying migrant workers overturned after its breaks failed, resulting in 10 injuries, in Kanjanaburi Provice, Thailand. On January 21st around 8:30 am, a large 6 wheeled truck carrying 27 migrant workers, including 5 children, crashed 2 miles outside of Sangkhalaburi, Kanchanaburi Province, Thailand.
?At least 1,000 villagers have fled from ten villages during the last five days following the establishment of a new SPDC Army camp in central Nyaunglebin District. Two villagers in the area of the camp are confirmed to have been killed by soldiers from this camp. Three other villagers are missing after another SPDC battalion attacked a party of villagers that had escaped from an SPDC relocation site to tend to their farms.
?Cooperation among the countries of the Mekong River region is putting pressure on human traffickers, a top Burmese official said.The Myanma Ahlin daily reported Thursday that Home Minister Maj-Gen Maung Oo told a regional meeting that the area is no longer a “safe haven” for the traffickers due to effective measures taken by its six countries.
? The Burmese government will not be collecting tax from immigrant workers and their families once their nationality has been identified, the Employment Department’s deputy director-general said yesterday. The identification of Burmese workers has been extended by another two years and should be completed by 2012, Supat Gukun said.
22nd January, 2010 (Friday)
?The students and faculty of the University of New South Wales (UNSW) from Sydney, Australia are providing training on advocacy, livelihood, counseling and human rights education to Burmese refugees in New Delhi, India, from Friday.
?Deteriorating human rights records is in evidence in Thailand given the country’s policy on migrant workers and refugees, the Human Rights Watch said in its World Report 2010. The HRW released a 612-page report on Wednesday, the organization’s 20th annual review of human rights practices around the globe. It evaluated the situation in Thailand, and said that the government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva had largely failed to fulfill its pledges to make human rights a priority.
23rd January, 2010 (Saturday)
?More than 1,000 Karen villagers from ten villages in Nyaunlebin District in Pegu Division fled their homes on Jan. 17 and are still hiding in the jungle due to Burmese government army attacks, according to a Karen relief group. The villagers, including women and children, lack sufficient food, medical care and other basic necessities, according to the Committee for Internally Displaced Karen People (CIDKP), a Thailand-based nongovernmental organization.
?Over 60 tents of Rohingya refugees, built near Teknaf bus-station before the Rohingya Resistance Committee (RRC) was formed in Teknaf, were destroyed by the local authorities along with police on January 23, said one of the refugees whose tent was also destroyed.
24th January, 2010 (Sunday)
?Migrant workers in Samut Sakhon are quitting their jobs to avoid nationality identification, resulting in labour shortages in the province. Somsuk Kongkachane, secretary-general of the Federation of Thai Industries, Samut Sakhon chapter, said about 2% of the 160,000 registered migrant workers in the province, or about 3,200 people, have quit their jobs over the issue. Samut Sakhon is home to Thailand’s largest number of migrant workers.
?A new wave of refugee registration to be conducted in the jungle camps by UNHCR in Malaysia has been hailed by Chin communities amid a series of continued arrests and raids by Malaysian RELA Corps and Police. The programme, known as Mobile Registration, is set to provide documentation to hundreds of asylum seekers who have been living in makeshift huts in the jungle, afraid to venture out to seek UNHCR assistance for fear of being arrested and detained.
25th January, 2010 (Monday)
?Thai-Mon communities gathered in Uthai Thani province to celebrate one of the most significant Mon holidays commemorating the founding of the old Mon capitol, Hongsawatoi. The ceremony and festival, celebrated on January 24th, drew an estimated 6,000 members of the Thai-Mon community from over 20 provincial areas in Thailand.
?About 3,000 Karen villagers who live in Tha Song Yang District in Tak Province in Thailand are under pressure from Thai authorities to return to Burma, according to human rights groups. Thai authorities were scheduled to hold a meeting in Tha Song Yang district on Monday to determine the fate of the refugees, but rights groups said it was postponed.
26th January, 2010 (Tuesday)
? The exodus of Burmese people searching for jobs and new lives in neighboring countries continues, despite the ruling junta’s is plans to hold elections this year, said the exile opposition party. Zaw Myint, of the exiled Burmese opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD) said in Malaysia, Burmese citizens are still flowing into Malaysia.
?Four labour leaders, who spearheaded a strike demanding a wage hike at the Osaka footwear factory in Mae Sai, Thailand, across Tachileik in Burma, were sacked on Tuesday. Despite work permits, the Burmese migrant workers do not get wages equal to their Thai counterparts. So all 72 migrant workers staged a walk-out demanding a wage hike to the tune of 10 Baht per day on January 23 afternoon. The four labour leaders were dismissed today.
?The National Human Rights Commission of Thailand (NHRC) organized a meeting regarding the issues of driving licenses to migrant workers in Thailand on 22, January 2010. The meeting was chaired by the human rights commissioner of Thailand and those in attendance were government’s officials, NGO workers and human rights defenders. The meeting was held at the NHRC’s office in Bangkok, Thailand.
?Thailand’s Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has defended his government against Human Rights Watch (HRW)’s accusation of Thailand being a threat to principles of human rights in its annual 2010 report. The premier during his weekly television and radio broadcast on Sunday said his government has always respected human rights principles.
28th January, 2010 (Thursday)
?The International Labour Organisation has released a guidebook for domestic workers to promote recognition of their rights. About 17,000 of the booklets titled Domestic Work _ Decent Work, printed in seven languages including Thai, Burmese, Lao, Shan and Karen, will be distributed through the Labour Ministry and labour advocacy groups.
?Human rights activists are calling on Thailand to shelve a plan to send Karen refugees back to Burma because of concerns over their safety. The activists made their call after learning the army was preparing to move the refugees at Nong Bua and Usutan temporary shelters in Tak’s Tha Song Yang district back to Burma.
?Poor funding support for recovery efforts after Cyclone Nargis has left hundreds of thousands in Myanmar vulnerable, many without durable shelters to withstand further disasters, the UN says. The category four storm struck Myanmar’s Yangon and Ayeyarwady divisions in May 2008, killing at least 140,000 and affecting 2.4 million people. It prompted an appeal for US$691 million for the Post Nargis Recovery and Preparedness Plan (PONREPP) from 2009 to 2011.
?Twenty refugees of Leda unofficial camp were sent to Cox’s Bazaar jail by police of Ukhiya and Teknaf while they were returning to their camp after work on January 23, said a refugee leader from Nayapara camp requesting not to be named. Since January, the police and BDR (Bangladesh Rifles) of border areas have increased their arrest of Rohingya people in Bangladesh, especially in border areas and pushed them back to Burma while some have been sent to Cox’s Bazaar jail.
? If refugee will be going to be sent back to their places, no security will be offered, said DKBA. Even though more than 2,000 refugees can be accepted to be returned, they can not guarantee for mines that are covered in that area.
29th January, 2009 (Friday)
? In the midst of tight security, Burmese migrant workers in thousands attended a concert by Burma’s top singers in Thailand’s Ranong province bordering Kawthong in Burma on January 28 and 29. Gen. Wipas Tansuhat, Chairman, Thailand-Burma Economic and Cultural Association, the organizers of a charity concert ‘Culture without Border’ said that the concert was aimed at fostering a good relationship between Thailand and Burma. Part of the money from sale of tickets will be used for charitable activities.
?A Burmese Muslim refugee from Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh was hospitalized on Friday after a group of Bangladesh villagers attacked him with blades near a refugee camp, said another refugee.
? OSAKA shoe factory workers from Mae Sai, who recently protested and demanded to get fair payment, are promised by factory owner to have equal payment as Thai workers. The minimum wage of Mae Sai, Chiang Rai province is 157 Bahts per day.
31st January, 2010 (Sunday)
?Nine Burmese job seekers were killed by unknown gunmen near the Thai-Burmese border town of Mae Sot, Thai police reported. A Thai police official in Phop Phra, in western Thailand’s Tak Province, told The Irrawaddy on Monday that the nine victims were among a party of 12 Burmese job seekers traveling from Mae Sot last Thursday.
?The UK-based Phan Foundation has awarded the 2009 Padoh Mahn Sha Young Leader Award to Karen Saw Nyunt Win in recognition of his continued efforts to help his people in the conflict zone in Karen State. Saw Nyunt Win, 32, a community health worker in Papun District in southern Karen State, was given the award for his commitment to helping local people in adverse conditions
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