Thailand forced 166 men, women and children back into Burma on Saturday even though they were fleeing fighting in their villages, prompting a reprimand from the United Nations refugee agency on Tuesday.
Fifty women, 70 children and 46 men at Wa Lay site in Tak Province, were ordered to leave, the UNHCR said in a statement.
The agency said that while it appreciated Thailand’s policy of allowing in Burma nationals when fighting occurs, they should only be returned home voluntarily and safely.
“They were fleeing clashes between the government and ethnic rebels in south-east Myanmar. The people fleeing were Karen,” UNHCR spokesperson Babar Baloch told Reuters in Geneva.
Continuing exodus
No one at the Thai diplomatic mission to the UN in Geneva was immediately available to comment.
The ruling Burma has long been accused of persecuting the country’s ethnic minorities, sparking a continuing exodus. About 150 000 refugees live in official camps along the Thai-Burma border, according to the agency.
At least 3 000 have entered Thailand since June 2009 as fighting intensifies in the south-eastern border area, and the UNHCR said it had expressed its concern already over the last few weeks to the Thai government over the hasty manner in which some refugees were returned.
Some had fled their homes again when fighting resumed shortly after their return, it said.
While Thailand has been a major country of asylum for four decades, it has not ratified the 1951 UN refugee convention. – Reuters