Thailand Begins Forced Repatriation of Karen Refuges

Three Karen families were forcibly sent back across the border to Burma by Thai authorities on Friday morning despite international calls for a halt to the repatriation due to security concerns.

English-language daily The Bangkok Post reported on Friday that Thailand was to deport the first 161 Karen refugees that day from Tak Province to their villages in Karen State, eastern Burma, as planned.

A Karen refugee with two legs missing lights up her pipe next to a sleeping baby under a temporary shelter on the Thai-Burmese border on June, 2009. (Photo: Getty Images)

“Three families from No Bon camp in Tha Song Yang were sent back to their village this morning,” said Saw Ta Su Nya, a villager in No Bon camp. “They didn't want to go back, but they had no choice.

“The faces of the villagers were full of sadness, but they did not cry,” he told The Irrawaddy.

Some 3,000 Karen villagers fled into Thailand in June 2009 to avoid the conflict between the Karen National Union and a joint Burmese government army - Democratic Karen Buddhist Army force.  

All 3,000 refugees are to be sent back to Burma by Feb. 15, according to Surapong Kongchantuk, the vice-chair of the Human Rights Subcommittee on Ethnic Minorities, the Stateless, Migrant Workers and Displaced Persons of the Lawyers Council of Thailand. 

The villagers—some of who were already internally displaced persons—said recently they did not want to go back to their villages because many landmines had been planted in the area.

Karen sources in the camp said that Thai authorities seized telephones belonging to several camp committee members on Friday because they did not want them to talk with the press.

The Thai army has claimed that they are simply helping the Karen refugees return voluntarily to their homes. However, Karen sources said this is untrue.

The sources, who did not wish to be named, said the Karen villagers were told by the Thai authorities to say that they wanted to return home to Burma.