Flurry of Rumor and Counter Rumor Regarding Repatriation is Detrimental to Refugees

A week ago, rumors began doing the rounds that the Thai military plans to repatriate the 130,000 or so displaced persons from Burma living in nine camps in Thailand along the length of the Burma-Thailand border in the relatively immediate future. The rumors started when General Prayuth Chan-o-cha, Head of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), mentioned that the refugee issue had been discussed with Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, Commander-in-Chief of the Burma Army. On 14 July, the Bangkok Post then quoted an unnamed Thai military source saying that working teams have sorted 130,000 refugees into three groups as part of preparations to send them home, a process expected to take around a year or more. A Burma Border Guard Force officer also told Mizzima on 15 July that armed ethnic groups in Karen State would allegedly cooperate in the resettlement of refugees on their return home.

However, according to DVB, Colonel Weerachon Sukondhadpatipak, a spokesman for the Thai military, refuted the rumors: “I don’t think this [repatriation] will happen at this moment. It is an issue we need to solve, but it doesn’t mean we are sending the Burmese people back to [Burma],” Weerachon said. “It is a long process that needs to be discussed with all concerned parties.” Indeed, nationalities would first need to be verified and people head-counted […]

Myanmar’s Rosewood Crisis

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Extremely rapid growth in Chinese imports of ‘redwood’, ‘rosewoods’ or ‘Hongmu’ timbers from Myanmar in the past two years is directly driving increased illegal and unsustainable logging, posing a real threat to governance, the rule of law and the viability Myanmar’s dwindling forests.

EIA research shows that, based on current trends, the two most targeted Hongmu species in Myanmar – tamalan and padauk – could be logged to commercial extinction in as little as three years.

With financial rewards for illegal loggers and timber smugglers dwarfing traditional incomes, and evidence of corruption facilitating illegal business, Myanmar’s domestic controls will be unable to effectively stem illegal trade.

Myanmar urgently needs to engender legal reciprocity from strategic timber trade partners, particularly China, to ensure Myanmar’s forestry and trade laws are respected along its land border […]

Finnwatch Researcher Andy Hall Faces Court in First ‘Natural Fruit’ Hearing 2nd July, Insists No Meaningful Negotiation Likely

Andy Hall and his team, with TFFA/TTIA representatives, in front of the Prakanong Court prior to his detention pending bail on 18th June 2014

British migrant rights activist Andy Hall, who campaigns to improve conditions for migrant workers in Thailand, will face Prakanong Criminal Court at 830am on Wed. 2nd July in his first formal appearance before a Thai court in numerous criminal and civil cases filed against him by Natural Fruit Company Ltd […]

Calls for DFID Burma Census Inquiry Top 1,000

More than a thousand people have written to Justine Greening, Secretary of State for International Development, calling for an inquiry into why the Department for International Development (DFID) spent 10m on Burma’s disastrous census earlier this year. DFID has not yet responded to these calls […]

Thai Oversea Investment on Coal Mining in Myanmar: The Private Business Violating Human Rights and Causing Environmental Impact on Ethnic Communities along Tenasserim Border

Tanintharyi Hills or Tanintharyi Range is the geographical name of a roughly 1,700 km long mountain chain, part of the Indo-­‐Malayan mountain system in Southeast Asia. The Tanintharyi Range covered with lush green forest and is a natural border line between Thailand and Myanmar. Across the hills in Myanmar side is Tanintharryi Region. The capital of this administrative region is Dawei which consists of diverse of ethnicity such as Dawei or Tavoy, Karen or Khayin and Mon. The local languages spoken by majority of the population are Tavoyan and Karen. In the past, the areain which bordering near Kanchanaburi province of Thailand was a former war zone between Karen ethnic group and Burmese junta government. It was intense conflict war zone during 1996 -­‐ 1997 until cease fire agreement between the Burmese junta and the Karen National Union (KNU) was signed in 2012 […]

ASEAN Community will Be a Failure without Regional Rights Protections: ASEAN MPs Call for Independence and Strengthened Mandate for Regional Human Rights Commission

BANGKOK — The ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) has failed to bring any discernible improvement to or provide any protection for the basic rights of the people of Southeast Asia since its inception in 2009 and must be radically changed in ways that strengthen its independence and mandate if the ASEAN Community is to have any real meaning or impact, Southeast Asian lawmakers said today […]

Trafficking in Persons Report 2014

BURMA

Burma is a source country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor, and for women and children subjected to sex trafficking in other countries. Burmese men, women, and children who migrate for work abroad, particularly to Thailand and China, are subjected to conditions of forced labor or sex trafficking in these countries. Poor economic conditions within Burma continue to drive large numbers of Burmese men, women, and children to migrate through both legal and illegal channels for work primarily in East Asia, as well as destinations including the Middle East, South Asia, and the United States. Men are most often subjected to forced labor, often in the fishing, manufacturing, and construction industries abroad. Women and girls are primarily subjected to sex trafficking or domestic servitude. The large numbers of migrants seeking work in Thailand’s fishing and domestic work sectors do so outside formal channels. Some Burmese men in the Thai fishing industry are subjected to debt bondage, passport confiscation, or false employment offers; some are also subjected to physical abuse and are forced to remain aboard vessels in international waters for years […]

Thailand: Fears of Crackdown Trigger Exodus

(New York) – The Thai military authorities should urgently improve human rights protections of migrant workers to end their mass flight from the country, Human Rights Watch said today.

Following the military coup on May 22, 2014, several hundred thousand registered and unregistered migrant workers from Cambodia, Burma, and Laos have fled the country in fear of a government crackdown and newly announced regulations. More than 200,000 Cambodian workers […]

Thai Industry Commits to Support Bail Out

On Wed. 18th June at 9am, British migrant rights activist Andy Hall,
who campaigns to improve conditions for migrant workers in Thailand,
will be escorted from Bangna police station, Bangna district, Bangkok
by police officers to meet officials at the Prakanong Public Prosecutors Office, Bangkok to learn the public prosecutor?s decision whether the latest criminal charges filed against him by Natural Fruit Co. Ltd. will be ordered prosecuted at Prakanong district court […]

Members of ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, ACT NOW Against Increasing Human Rights Violations in the Region!

The Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) calls on the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) to ACT NOW against increasing human rights violations in the region […]