Thousands of Burmese refugees living in Thailand run the risk of repatriation and on return home they face the danger of torture or even death, rights activists say..
Up to 3,000 ethnic Karens were forced from eastern Burma last summer. While the Thai authorities insist that no one will be forced to return to Burma against their will, there are reports that officials have already been putting pressure on some of the refugees.
"Sending these refugees back to Burma is sending them back to possible death, slave labour or forced recruitment as soldiers," said Zoya Phan, of the Burma Campaign UK. "Over the past 25 years Thailand has earned the respect of the international community by giving shelter to Burmese refugees. If they are now forced to return it will not only be morally unacceptable, it will also damage the reputation of Thailand in the eyes of the world."
The ethnic Karen of eastern Burma have long struggled, unsuccessfully, to create their own federal state. They have faced sustained hostility from the Burmese military, and also from certain Karen groups which have allied themselves with the junta, most noticeably the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), a report in The Independent said.
Over the past two decades, about 100,000 Karen refugees have taken shelter in camps strung along the Thailand-Burma border. One camp, Mae La, holds more than 40,000 people. Aid groups believe that another half a million Karen are displaced inside eastern Burma.
Activists say the area in Burma’s Karen state to which the refugees would be made to return is littered with landmines. Two weeks ago a pregnant woman who had returned stepped on a landmine and was seriously injured.
Benedict Rogers, of Christian Solidarity Worldwide, said: "These people must not be returned until they can do so safely, and that will only be possible when Burma is at peace."
