Children on the Edge

10 Mar

500 Burmese Migrants taken into Custody in Mae Sot

By Children on the Edge Charity

The Irrawaddy reports that about 500 Burmese migrant workers and their children were taken into custody in Mae Sot after Thai Authorities raided their homes on Thursday.

The crackdown took place at different locations in Mae Sot, Thailand, where Children on the Edge works with Burmese migrant and refugee children. The migrants were rounded up by the police in the early hours of the morning and will be deported back to Burma. Many of these people are not economic migrants having fled Burma and its harsh military regime for safety and protection from persecution and ethnic cleansing.

Htay Oo, a Burmese migrant worker in Mae Sot, said that most migrant families had information about the coming crackdown, but they did not leave town to avoid arrest. Some Burmese political offices did close, fearing they too would be part of the raids.

There are estimated to be 1.5 million legal and illegal migrants workers in Thailand. Many migrant workers only earn enough money to provide for their daily food. If they are arrested and sent back to Burma, they usually re-enter Thailand and resume working, many in the factories surrounding Mae Sot.
 

04 Dec

Children on the Edge expands work with the Children of Burma

By Children on the Edge Charity

Children on the Edge has returned from an exploratory trip to the Indian State of Mizoram which borders with Chin State, Burma. The trip was an opportunity for Children on the Edge to talk to people who had recently fled Chin State. 

The people from Chin State spoke of forced labour, houses being destroyed, churches being burned, murders, torture and rape being committed by the Burmese military regime. As well as of overwhelming hunger that forced them to flee their homeland. These are the lucky ones who had managed to escape over the border to India though they live with the daily threat of deportation.

One of the main issues within Chin State is the famine, locally known as Mautam. Every 50 years the bamboo flowers and attracts a plague of rats that eat through all crops and rice stores. The government have 'turned a blind eye' to the suffering of their own people and are doing nothing to help. In the past, the rat infestation has lasted for three years until the rats run out of food and their populations have returned to normal.

"If this famine continues for the next three years, our land will be completely deserted and empty. We need your immediate actions" said Rev. M. Thawng Kam, General Secretary of Zomi Baptist Convention. 

On a visit to a border Clinic where people from within Chin State receive medical care, Children on the Edge heard stories of hunger and malnutrition. The clinic has treated people with stomach problems caused by starving desperate people forced to eat wood, corn husks and poisonous mushrooms. A mobile medical team that travels from the Clinic into Chin State spoke of many cases of child malnutrition and were starting to report child deaths.

Children on the Edge has identified four priority areas that need support. These include: famine relief; pediatric support for the border clinic; cross border education support; and school scholarship and hardship funds. Currently, funds are being allocated to these areas. 

Rachel Bentley, Director of Children on the Edge, said:  "There is no doubt that the Chin People are suffering terribly but they do so with dignity and are doing all they can for their own people. Working with the Chin People is a natural development for Children on the Edge due to our experience working with the Karen People on the Thai/Burma border."