This reporting lacks substance. A visit by the head of a UN agency should result in more analysis by the press.
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UNHCR chief asks Thailand to tackle AIDS in refugee camps
AFP
30 August 2006
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has asked Thailand to tackle the spread of AIDS inside refugee camps along the Thai-Myanmar border, a Thai government spokesman has said.
Antonio Guterrez met Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra at Bangkok's Government House on the third day of his four-day official visit to Thailand.
"The UN High Commissioner expressed his concern over the spread of AIDS in camps which house Myanmar ethnic displaced person in both Ratchaburi and Tak provinces," Chalermchai Mahakitsiri, deputy government spokesman, told reporters Wednesday.
Guterrez on Tuesday visited the overcrowded Than Him refugee camp in Thailand's western Ratchaburi province, home to some 10,000 ethnic Karen who fled fighting in their homeland of Myanmar.
Chalermchai said Thaksin had tasked the Thai Public Health Ministry with looking look into the matter of HIV/AIDS in the camps.
Guterrez also expressed concern over the influx of illegal migrant workers from neighbouring countries into Thailand.
Chalermchai said they were trying to counteract that by investing in neighbouring countries, thus encouraging workers to stay in their home countries.
Thaksin also acknowledged that Myanmar will not be able to issue temporary passports to all migrant workers as announced on Monday because the authorities in Myanmar are unable to screen for terrorists and criminals.
Thailand will address the problem by issuing smart ID cards for migrant workers, Chalermchai said. — AFP
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Thaksin acts to combat AIDS in refugee camps
Shah Paung
Irrawaddy
30 August
Thailand’s caretaker prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, has ordered the
country’s public health ministry to send medical staff to border refugee
camps to tackle a growing AIDS problem there, the Associated Press
reported on Wednesday.
Thai government spokesman Chalerchai Mahakitsiri said Thaksin acted after
meeting UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres, who visited a
camp housing more than 10,000 ethnic Karen refugees. Guterres was
accompanied on the visit to Tham Hin camp, in Ratchaburi Province, by US
Assistant Secretary of State Ellen Sauerbrey.
AP reported that Guterres later “urged Thailand to help tackle the AIDS
situation in refuge camps.” At the same time, he praised Thailand for its
national AIDS prevention campaign.
More than 140,000 refugees, mostly Karen from Burma, live in nine camps
near the Thai-Burmese border. Tham Hin camp was built in 1997.
About 2,700 camp residents are scheduled to be resettled in the US and
Australia. Three hundred have left the Tham Hin camp this month for
resettlement, and the camp’s remaining refugees are reported to be facing
relocation to camps in Kachanaburi and Saraburi provinces. Many are
dismayed at the prospect of the resettlement program coming to a
conclusion at the end of this year.
Ka Nae Khin, a camp resident waiting to leave for the US, said he
considered himself lucky but voiced concern about the fate of other
refugees.
Another camp resident, Paw Lan who is not being resettled, hoped she and
other remaining refugees would be well looked after by the Thai
authorities.
Nero, who is working in the Karen Women’s Organization and will not be
accompanying her family to the US, said: “I hope people who go there will
not forget those of their nation still in refugee camps and those
suffering in Burma. I hope they will retain their Karen culture. This is
the most important thing.”
