At last, a celebrity with something to say
Posted on February 6, 2009
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Jolie visits Ban Mai Nai Soi camp
Angelina Jolie is in Thailand visiting the border camps housing refugees from Burma in her capacity as a Goodwill Ambassador for the UNHCR. On Wednesday, she visited Ban Mai Nai Soi camp in Mae Hong Son province, a few hours drive from Mae Sot.
The camp houses 18,111 Karenni refugees. And Jolie spent time talking to several refugees. In a statement issued by the UNHCR, the actress said: “I was saddened to meet a 21-year-old woman who was born in a refugee camp, who has never even been out of the camp and is now raising her own child in a camp.”
But, unlike so many celebrity advocates, without anything useful to say (see: Maradona speaks up for Aung San Suu Kyi), Jolie went on to call for the Thai government to relax restrictions on refugees’ movement and activities outside of the camps. She said, “With no foreseeable chance that these refugees will soon be able to return to Burma, we must find some way to help them work and become self reliant.”
There are 111,000 registered refugees living in nine camps along the Thai-Burma border. They are not officially allowed to travel outside the camps to work or receive higher education. With few employment opportunities available in the camp, cases of suicide and spousal abuse are rising in the camps.
However, given the poor security in the camps, many do leave and make it to towns like Mae Sot, where many of them work for Karen Community Based Organisations.
However, without official papers, their movements are often restricted and they are subject to harassment by Thai police.
Related posts:
- Refugee camps likely to come under pressure in the next year Refugee camps along the Thai-Burma border could come under pressure...
- Refugees in Thailand under pressure Some 3,000 Karen refugees a few hours from Mae Sot...
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