Background
For nearly sixty years since Burma became an independent republic, there has been conflict between the Burmese government and ethnic minority groups seeking autonomy in the eastern region of Burma. The Burmese military has undertaken mass village relocation programs to suppress ethnic resistance. It has forced local people to transport supplies and build roads, denied access to their land and strictly controlled the movement of people. Rape and torture are common. Villages are regularly burnt down. Landmines planted by both government forces and ethnic armed groups injure and kill fighters, villagers and animals. As a result many Shan, Mon, Kachin, Karen, Wa and Karenni people who live in east Burma have fled their homes. Over half a million displaced people are living in the Burmese jungle or in camps for internally displaced people. Hundreds of thousands have fled to Burma’s border with Thailand. Currently around 150,000 people are sheltered in nine refugee camps along the border, while others live illegally in Thai villages. The situation continues to worsen.
Caring for refugees and displaced people
All Burmese refugees in Thailand are officially required to stay within camp boundaries, which make them almost entirely dependent on international assistance. They have no access to employment opportunities, forest products, external education or occupational training. Refugees caught outside the camps may be arrested and deported.
These refugee camps are unique in that they are the only camps in the world run by the refugees themselves. Twenty non-government agencies support the camps, with the permission of the Royal Thai Government and in partnership with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). One of these agencies is the Thailand Burma Border Consortium (TBBC), made up of 12 international non-government member organisations from ten different countries. TBBC is also supported by international governments, including the Australian government.
TBBC provides provide food, shelter and some non-food items to support an adequate standard of living in the camps. TBBC also supports the refugee management committees and programs which promote self-reliance whilst maintaining their culture and social connections. In addition, TBBC provides support to many of the displaced people living in Burma and those living in Thai villages.
Food
People in camps are provided with the minimum nutrition standards set by UNHCR and World Food Programme of 2,100 kilocalories/person/day.
FOOD ITEM
|
MONTHLY RATION |
| Rice |
15 kg/adult; 7.5 kg/child < 5 years |
| Fortified flour (AsiaMIX) |
250 g /adult; 1 kg / child <5 years |
| Fish paste |
750 g / person |
| Iodised salt |
330 g / person |
| Mung beans |
1 kg/adult; 500 gm/child < 5 years |
| Cooking oil |
1 ltr/adult; 0.5 ltr/child < 5 years |
| Dried chillies |
40 g / person |
| Sugar |
125 g/adult; 250 g/child < 5 years |
Shelter and utensils
Since 1997 when the Thai government banned refugees from cutting bamboo, TBBC began to provide bamboo and thatch for refugees to build houses similar to those traditionally used in rural areas in Burma and nearby Thai villages. TBBC provides sufficient materials to ensure houses offer the minimum international standard of at least 3.5 square metres of covered area per person. Cooking fuel, fuel efficient stoves, cooking utensils, blankets and clothing are also provided.
Refugees design, construct and repair their own houses with materials supplied by TBBC to minimise their impact on the environment.
Credit: Act for peace
The Refugee Camp Committees are responsible for the distribution of supplies. Each family has a ration book stating their entitlement, and they are called to the delivery point for distribution.
Building capacity
The Community Agriculture and Nutrition Project and the Longyi-Weaving Project provide a source of income for camp residents. They promote self-reliance, help reduce aid-dependency and preserve traditional skills and culture for the residents, many of whom have lived in the refugee villages for most or all of their lives.
Community Agriculture and Nutrition
The Community Agriculture and Nutrition project trains camp residents in farming techniques that are suitable for the local terrain and camp environment and on appropriate crops and livestock for optimal nutritional value. It has also established seed banks in nearby communities.
While we have been living in refugee camps we have slowly been losing our heritage, our wisdom, and our ways. For our children, rice comes from a warehouse, not grown on our own land by our own hands.
David Saw Wah, Community Agriculture and Nutrition - Handbook
Although space and water are a problem in some camps, the project is building a comprehensive approach to both the immediate and long-term food security issues facing refugee and displaced people.
Longyi-Weaving Project
The longyi is a traditional wrap-around garment worn by both men and women in Burma. Since 2002, TBBC has provided yarns, looms and financial support to women’s organisations to make one longyi for every adult over the age of 12. This project works to empower refugee women by increasing the project management capacity of women’s organisations. It provides a source of income and maintains and develops traditional skills that may be otherwise lost due to long-term exile.
The Longyi-Weaving Project assists women living in refugee camps along the Thailand-Burma border to maintain and develop traditional skills and earn an income.
Credit: TBBC
Finding new homes- Resettlement
The camps along the Thailand-Burma border represent one of the world’s longest running humanitarian crises and people are unlikely to be able to return to their homes in Burma in the near future. In 2005, the Royal Thai Government invited other countries to resettle Burmese refugees from the camps along the border. By May 2009, 50,000 people had been resettled in ten countries including the United States, Canada, Australia, Finland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden.
‘There's no hope in a refugee camp and I cannot go back to my country. My child has no opportunities in the camp. The most important thing for us is that my child gets an education,’ said Plu Reh, a Karenni school teacher, the 50,000th person to be resettled.
He hopes that by studying hard in the United States, he and his wife will be able to help Burma and their people in the future.
Healing trail in Australia
Of the 13,500 people admitted to Australia annually under the humanitarian visa program, Burmese refugees have been the largest group in 2007-2008 and 2008-2009. They have settled mainly in Sydney and Melbourne.
Refugees face huge challenges in settling into a new environment. After years of being confined to camps in remote areas, they have to adapt to living in isolated houses in large cities. They face enormous language barriers and a deep cultural shock. They feel isolated and deep loneliness.
Chin refugees sharing their stories as part of the Healing Trail weekend
Credit: Act for Peace
The Healing Trail program, organised by Act for Peace, the international aid agency of the National Council of Churches in Australia, assists with resettlement. The program takes groups of refugees to spend weekends with Australian families in regional cities or small towns. There is a two-way sharing of stories, food and activities. At the beginning, everyone is nervous but by the end of the weekend, all involved have a sense of travelling on a journey together. The links forged during the weekend promote a whole new attitude of acceptance and tolerance.
Sources:
www.tbbc.org
www.unhcr.org
www.actforpeace.org.au
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