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For over 40 years, almost unnoticed by the international community, one of
the most brutal military dictatorships in the world has ruled the country
of Burma. The generals and the army stand accused of gross human rights
abuses, including the forcible relocation of civilians, food and land
requisitions, the widespread use of forced labour, killings, torture,
beatings and rapes by the militia.
Since 1962 the military regime has waged a violent and inhuman war on
over 100 ethnic groups throughout Burma. Many of these ethnic groups are
forced to hide in inaccessible jungles from military attacks. Others,
not able to escape the attacks suffer indescribable horror, villages are
burnt to the ground, villagers killed, used as food and weapon carriers
and human land mine sweepers, women are raped and men tortured. Peace
to these people is something from the past, and to some, it’s something
they have never known.
This brutal violence and instability has created a mass migration of
refugees to neighboring countries, especially Thailand. Thousands have
been accepted as refugees, however as Thailand is not a signatory to
the UN Convention on refugees many people fleeing Burma, who should
under international law be given refugee status are denied this and
hence many, in sheer desperation, enter Thailand as illegal migrants.
There are now believed to be more than 1.5 million illegal migrants
from Burma living in Thailand, under threat of deportation, back to
an uncertain fate.
These illegal migrants often arrive with nothing, and with no legal
status the children have difficulty accessing an education and often
fall victim to the sex and drug trafficking trade, whether it be for
survival or through kidnapping.
In their homeland they face poverty, persecution and hunger, as migrants
& refugees they still face the same, yet in Thailand we have the
ability to access and assist them.
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