BORDER NEWS ” KM44 school: parents and students chased away” HELP WIHOUT FRONTIERS

KM44 school: parents and students chased away

The 44 km school, which is supported by HWF, is a little bamboo hut with concrete floor. At the moment four teachers teach 145 students of different ages. The school building is located directly in a little migrant village that has arisen in the last years. These people from Burma found work and received permission to build their bamboo huts on the land of a Thai farmer. All in all, the village houses 60 families. Approximately 150 of them work as farm labour. Unfortunately, only 50 of them have a work permit, which is very difficult to get for Burmese migrants. Most of these people have illegally emigrated from Burma to find work and a safe place in Thailand.

On the morning of the 14th of January 2009 the Thai military came to the village and forced the people to leave their homes accusing the villagers of supporting drug and people trafficking. Another challenge of the soldiers was to close the school. They threatened to destroy the school if the people would not obey.

The villagers started immediately with the destruction of their houses and fled, with only their most necessary belongings, into the jungle. 43 of the 145 students that attend the 44 km school, went with their parents into the jungle. The consequence is that the students cannot continue to go to school.

A climatic factor dramatizes this difficult situation enormously. Since a couple of weeks a long lasting cold period is prevailing all around Asia. This means that that people who usually are accustomed to tropical climatic circumstances, have to survive very cold nights, where the temperature can sink to freezing point.

The four teachers decided and communicated to the parents of the students, to stop teaching in the school for four days. After that they’ll see for how many children it’s possible to walk to school through the jungle.

The HWF team was at the school for a visit just one day before this happened. The day after, when the incoming call reached the HWF office, that the Thai military were forcing them to flee, the HWF team immediately returned to the village.

To support the people, HWF gives an emergency set to every student’s family. This set (one mosquito net, a blanket and a sleeping mat) should help the people to make the cold nights in the jungle more bearable.

The international NGO Basic Health Care Unit is also taking care of the displaced people.
http://www.helpwithoutfrontiers.org/aktuelles/aktuell.php?id=535&lang=e

Burmese migrant workers evicted from campsite

Jan 16, 2009 (DVB)–About 200 Burmese migrant workers have been forced to go into hiding in the jungle after Thai authorities raided their campsite in a bamboo forest near the town of Phop Phraya.

Phop Phraya is located south of the Thai border town of Mae Sot, which is across the border from Myawaddy in Burma.
Htike Thu Aung, a school teacher who lived on the campsite, said officials had threatened to deport anyone who remained in the camp.
“On the 14th of this month, a group of Thai officials from Phop Phraya came to the campsite and announced that the place would be demolished,” Htike Thu Aung said.
“They said anyone still living there, whether they hold legal documents or not, will be arrested and sent back to Burma and their property will be seized,” he said.
“There were elderly people and small babies among those kicked off the campsite.”
Nay Win Aung, a six-year-old kindergarten student, said conditions were difficult in the jungle.
“We had to run very deep into the jungle and it is so cold at night without any blankets. There are a lot of mosquitoes here too,” he said.
“We are not eating properly as no one dares to go into town to buy groceries.”
Moe Gyo, chairman of the Thailand-based Joint Action Committee for Burma Affairs, said the Thai authorities’ actions were against international human rights norms and Thai domestic law.
“We think this is ridiculous. These Burmese workers were only making a living working for farming businesses owned by Thai people,” Moe Gyo said.
“Now the Thai authorities are even destroying houses where workers with legal documents are living,” he said.
“This is unacceptable both on human rights grounds and under Thai law and regulations.” http://english.dvb.no/news.php?id=2105

Burmese Migrant Workers’ Community Destroyed and Inhabitants Arrested

U Thaung Kyi one of the villagers said “Ten cars arrived in the morning at 8 o’clock. They came with a ten-wheel truck with soldiers and two small trucks with police. And the rest cars were prepared to arrest the migrant workers. They quickly arrested the people and pursued the people hiding in the forest. Now they are continue to arrest Burmese workers who are living in nearby villages.
The Wor Tor village is 44 kilometers from Mae Sot and there were about 70 houses and over 200 Burmese migrant workers living together in this village when it was destroyed around 1 o’clock.
The village has a Burmese school supported by a Thai Education team, MOE, and Help without Frontier (HWF) and they also had a health care center, a small library, toilets and drinking water supported by the International Refugee Committee. Teacher U Htike Thu Aung remembered it as a beautiful village even though there was no electricity.
He said “Our village is very nice. We established the school by ourselves in 2001. MOF and HWF built the new school in 2008. It became like a Burmese village. That is why Thai authorities don’t like this village and destroyed it. Now my students can’t continue their education. They will go to the farm to work. The children’s future becomes stateless and illiterate. But we will try again as long as we can”.
This school had grade 1 to grade 5 and employed 1 Thai teacher, 3 Burmese teachers to instruct 146 children.
Ko Moe Kyoue, the leader of Burmese Association, said “We couldn’t directly protest the laws managing the illegal migrant worker, but we did send the Karen Youth Organization to request for Border security. We informed the supporting organization about the village’s situation. Burmese people are facing a lot of difficulty in Thailand, so many of us come here because in our country we can’t fine food and work”.
On the Thai Burma Border there are over 100,000 people living in Mae Sot and 600,000 people living in Tak province as measured in a survey conducted by the Burmese Association. http://www.ghre.org/en/