Flooding in northern Thailand has made several hundred Burmese refugees homeless and students unable to attend school as fears of further landslides at makeshift camps increase, claim Karen refugees.
More than 1,000 refugees in Mae Ra Mu Luang refugee camp have lost their homes and are currently seeking shelter in monasteries, churches and several school buildings, according to the Karen Refugee Committee (KRC).
Kyaw Pway, a staffer at the KRC office at Mae Sariang in northern Thailand, said, “The emergency need is for plastic sheets. They need plastic sheets to make their temporary shelters.”
He said that six pick-up trucks traveled to the refugee camp to deliver 100 plastic sheets and some clothes to the affected refugees. The supplies were provided by the Thailand Burma Border Consortium (TBBC) aid agency.
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| Some of the 2,970 rice sacks that have been destroyed by flooding at refugee camps in northern Thailand. (Photo: KRC) |
Per Vogel, a program coordinator for worldwide relief agency Malteser International in Thailand, told The Irrawaddy on Monday that his local health workers in the refugee camps help flooding victims by providing medicine and medical care. There has been no outbreak of major disease among flooding victims in the camps so far, said Vogel.
Malteser International is a non-governmental organization which also operates relief and health programs at refugee camps in Thailand.
Mae La Oon and Mae Ra Ma Luang house more than 3,3000 refugees who were forced from their homes in Karen State, eastern Burma, due to Burmese Army attacks. Many have stayed at the camps for over two decades, according to KRC figures.
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