Angelina Jolie, UNHCR Ambassador, Pleads With Thai Authorities for Better Conditions for Refugees

Mari at home on Isle of Wight, Nik Nicholson

Posted by
Mari Nicholson
Feb 7, 2009

Into the simmering row about the Rohingya immigrants denied asylum in Thailand steps the Academy Award winning actress and goodwill ambassador to the U.N. Refugee Agency, Angelina Jolie.

Angelia was touring Ban Mai Nai Soi Camp, one of many in Northern Thailand which houses thousands of refugees from Burma, some of whom have been constrained in camps for up to 20 years. In a UNHCR statement released this week, Jolie was quoted as saying that she was saddened to meet a woman born in a camp. now raising her own child in a camp, and who had never lived outside a camp.

Karen & Rohingya Refugees in Camps

According to the UNHCR, 5,000 Burmese are still awaiting refugee status since they fled across the border to escape the fighting in Kayah state in 2006. Most of these are ethnic Karen refugees, not Rohingya, but the plight of the Rohingya who were allegedly pushed out to sea without adequate food or water by the Thai authorities, has brought the refugee problem to the world’s attention once again.

Rohingya Refugees Sent to Sea in Boats

Thailand is currently investigating reports that ethnic Rohingya refugees were recently intercepted by the military and returned to the open sea in rickety boats. The Rohingya are an ethnic Muslim minority group in a predominantly Buddhist Burma and they face harsh repression at the hands of the Burmese military authorities. The only way out for them seems to be a journey across treacherous seas in a rickety boat with hope of being settled in Thailand.

The latest group to have been rescued from an almost certain death in the ocean, claim to have been working in Thailand for a year. They further claim that they were rounded up by the military who then beat them extensively and set them adrift. According to various reports in the Asian press, Thailand has admitted that it towed the Rohingya men out to sea, but it denies sabotaging their boats or mis-treating the men.

Brutal Treatment by Burmese Military

Nothing can excuse such brutal treatment of desperate men, but in the rush to scapegoat someone it should not be forgotten that the Burmese military junta stands accused of gross atrocities and abuses against all ethnic minorities in their country, and it is these abusive acts that has forced thousands to flee to Thailand.