UNHCR helps safe return of Myanmar refugees in Thailand

Speaking at a meeting in Nay Pyi Taw on July 6, Minister of Border Affairs Lt Gen Ye Aung said the government will make necessary arrangements to ensure that the refugees living on the Myanmar-Thailand border will return home with safety and dignity, the Myanmar News Agency reported on July 7. 

The Border Affairs Ministry plans to ink a memorandum of understanding with the UNHCR on projects to provide returned Myanmar refugees with education, healthcare, clean water, infrastructure and vocational training, the agency noted. 

About 105,000 Myanmar refugees are staying in border camps in Mae Hong Son, Tak, Kanchanaburi and Ratchaburi provinces of Thailand.

Thailand considers them displaced persons as the country is not a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention, the legal document that would let the UNHCR get directly involved in the issue. 

The repatriation of the Myanmar refugees was raised in talks between Myanmar Foreign Minister and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha in Bangkok last month.