IOM Supports Thai Response to Refugee Influx from Myanmar

November 9, 2010
.Posted on Tuesday, 09-11-2010

Thailand - IOM yesterday deployed trucks and pickups at the request of the Thai army to help thousands of refugees fleeing across the border into the Thai border town of Mae Sot to escape fighting in neighbouring Myanmar.The fighting between the Myanmar military and an ethnic minority armed group, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), following the Myanmar elections on Sunday, resulted in an estimated 12,000 people fleeing into Thailand at the Mae Sot and Three Pagoda Pass border crossing points.

In Mae Sot IOM yesterday transported some 5,000 people from the Thai side of the Moei River to a safe former military compound designated by the Thai authorities. All the refugees came from the town of Miwaddy on the Myanmar side of the river.

The Thai authorities, Mae Sot residents and local and international NGOs are providing food, water, blankets and medical aid to the refugees, with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) coordinating the relief effort. IOM set up a small clinic close to the compound to treat the injured.

IOM has offered to accommodate up to 300 of the most vulnerable refugees in its 2000-capacity refugee resettlement processing centre in Mae Sot, if the refugees are unable to return home in the immediate future.

For more information please contact:

Chris Lom
IOM Bangkok
E-mail: clom@iom.int
Tel: +66.819275215