Open Letter to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee

Subject: Request for regaining of losing status and safety of life for POCs (person of concerned) at UNHCR

Around 8:45 P.M on 27 April 2005 a group of drunken Thai militias who are guarding our Ban Don Yang refugee camp threatened Mr. Khin Mg Win (NI-50280) with gun at his temporary shelter inside the camp and fired three shots without reason. Khin Mg Win was a member of ABFSU (All Burma Federation of Student Unions) and lives in the camp with the status of Person of Concerned to UNHCR. The incident clearly demonstrates how difficult our lives have been under the security control of unpredictable Thai militias and how our lives have been going unprotected. We are overwhelmed by fear for the safety of our lives and the current situations in our camp make us do something for our safety since the security measure on us imposed by Thai authorities has turned out to be a severe danger to our lives.

Therefore, we POCs, who had been transferred to the camp decided to start a campaign for our own safety by staging a sit-in protest in the school of our camp on 28 April 2005. On the 29th a Thai officer from Sangkhalaburi district of Thailand visited us and threatened that the school area where we were would be rounded up with barbed wires and access to the school would be blocked with armed soldiers if we did not call off our action immediately. This threat felt most of the POCs frightened and some of us left the school for their own temporary shelters in the camp. However we 30 protestors, who are determined to carry on the action continued to remain inside the school building. The Thai authorities can any time break down our action by means of using physical abuses and torture.

We can be forcibly taken out of school compound at gun point one by one or in group. There are other unpredictable dangers we can face while in action. They really happened. About 10 P. M on 1 May 2005 a group of Thai thugs who were hired by Thai authorities to break down our action unexpectedly showed up at the school but fortunately we were managed to persuade and explain them why we were doing this kind of action in our closed camp which can by no means affect Thai citizens and Thai soil. They left us unhurt and went back out of the camp. We cannot foresee what kind of danger would come upon us next. This event is similar to the deadly attack, sponsored by the ruling military junta (SPDC), on our democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her entourage 2 years ago.

The main aim of our action is just to get the guarantee of refugee rights in accordance with the UN refugee convention and safety of our lives.

In this regard we would like to urge the UNHCR to give full protection of our lives from any possible dangers and to implement our following requests for safety based on 1951 Geneva Convention on Refugees. Also we strongly believe that UNHCR would ask the Thai authorities concerned to respect the rights of us refugees on the humanitarian ground and to allow us safe refuge on Thai soil.

To allow us to stay in Bangkok area where we can get full protection from the UNHCR regional office, To allow us full Person of Concerned status in accordance with UNHCR Convention, To speed up the process of our resettlement in a third country within a time framework, To ask the Thai Government to issue us permission to stay legally in Thailand till our departure to a Third country, To provide us with allowance for food and health till our departure to a Third country.

This open letter to UNHCR High Commissioner was secretly taken out of the BDY camp by a Burmese refugee who has recently resettled in Finland amid the tight security control by Thai authorities. If any further information concerning the sit-in protest which has been going on to date is required, please contact the following person.

Ko Lin Laikuttajantie 4 A 14 40340 Jyväskylä Finland Tel: +35840 8789815 Email: vitolynn@hotmail.com

I found a bit more info from an article posted about a yr ago.................

"The UNHCR has previously granted "persons of concern" (POC) status for about 1,600 Burmese asylum seekers. A POC entitles refugees to a small sum of financial support and to travel around Thailand with prior permission.

Many Burmese POCs lived at the Maneeloy Holding Centre in Ratchaburi until it was closed in 2001. They were shifted to the Tham Hin refugee camp near the Burmese border in an effort to control their anti-Rangoon activities.

Last July, the government severely criticised the UNHCR for granting POC status without informing them.

Meanwhile, Bhairaja Panday, the UNHCR's deputy regional representative for Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, told a seminar that the United States had offered to consider Burmese POC holders for resettlement.

A decision is expected in September.

There are 4,000 Burmese who have applied for POC status.
They would also be eligible for the relocation to a third country, Bhairaja said"

Thanks for your info. Please just add the following if you've not read:
In July 2003, the Thai government announced that urban Burmese refugees had to be registered by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Many were granted "person of concern" status and recommended for third-country resettlement.

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/RMOI-6CG7Y3?OpenDocument

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