Myanmar -Abandoned on the Thai border

MAE SOT - Recent reforms and decisions promoted by Myanmar President Thein Sein have been greeted with enthusiasm by much of the international community.

Yet, many crucial issues remain unresolved, not least among them ongoing conflicts and tenuous ceasefire agreements between the Myanmar government and ethnic paramilitary groups fighting for autonomy in their territories.

Those armed conflicts have sent tens of thousands of people, many of whom are unregistered and considered stateless people in Myanmar and neighboring Thailand, into refugee camps along the Thai-Myanmar border.

Now, as Thein Sein's nominally civilian government gestures towards national reconciliation and attempts to forge ceasefire agreements with armed groups, the future of these refugees hangs in the balance.

Given the new possibility to work directly with the Myanmar government, many international humanitarian agencies and non-governmental organizations are weighing whether to leave the Thai border and establish projects and presences directly inside Myanmar, one of Asia's most impoverished and underdeveloped countries.

The Thai government, meanwhile, has created new obstacles to international organizations that have long operated along the border in an apparent strategy to eventually push the refugees back to Myanmar.

With no binding political agreement between ethnic groups and Myanmar's government in sight, and a renewed conflict raging in northern Kachin state, the premature departure of international aid, medical and other humanitarian organizations from the still volatile border regions will likely worsen the living conditions of tens of thousands of Thailand-based refugees, aggravating what is already a grave humanitarian crisis.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Thailand currently hosts some 92,000 registered refugees from Myanmar and an estimated 54,000 unregistered asylum seekers in nine camps along the Thai-Myanmar border. Added to these figures are at least 62,015 internally displaced persons and 797,338 stateless people inside Myanmar.

Even with a program started in 2005 to resettle refugees in third countries, the population of Thailand's refugee camps has not diminished.

Although the first refugees started to arrive in the 1980s, their future and legal status remains bleak and uncertain. Thailand is party to neither the UN's 1951 Refugee Convention or its Statelessness Conventions, thus limiting the UN's role on the Thai border and in the camps. Amendments to Thailand's Civil Registration Act in 2008 provided for universal birth registration, allowing for the issuance of birth certificates to all children born in the country regardless of their parents' status.

However, the "Thai government does not provide any direct support and there is a complete dependence on external aid," according to a European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO) report.

UNHCR is currently one of few international organizations that can confirm a continued commitment to assistance programs along the border. But that commitment, too, is flagging. The Thai government has contributed a mere US$20,000 per year since 2004 to UNHCR's Thailand-related budget while private donors contributed $3.3 million in 2011. UNHCR has indicated without explanation on its website that contributions to Thailand-based operations will be less than last year, though officials deny the fall in funding will impact its operations.

"We have no intention of decreasing our services to the refugees who still need protection on the Thai side of the border," said Kitty McKinsey, UNHCR's spokesperson for Asia. "If and when the time comes that they feel they can go home in safety and dignity, we would of course help them to do so."

The European Union, too, has recently cut its humanitarian assistance in Thailand, which includes aid for refugee camps and funding for local civil society groups involved with border and refugee issues. According to ECHO's website, funds to "Myanmar/Thailand" will decrease from 22.3 million euros (US$29.6 million) in 2011, with 8 million euros allocated to refugees from Myanmar living in border camps in Thailand, to 19 million euros in 2012, with just 6.4 million euros allocated to refugees.

Meanwhile, more foreign funds are being funneled directly into Myanmar. In a report published at the beginning of the year, Refugees International wrote that: "In recent years, the UK, EU, and Australia have significantly increased assistance inside [Myanmar]. However, the majority of the US government's $38.5 million contribution to [Myanmar] goes to organizations based in Thailand."

The report noted that "the USAID's Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) has spent only $100,000 in [Myanmar] since its response to Cyclone Nargis," referring to the 2008 natural disaster that adversely affected over two million Myanmar citizens. But as reported in the State Department and USAID Congressional Budget Justification, "the [fiscal year] 2012 request for [Myanmar] is $35.1m" including "recovery programs to [Myanmar] refugees and internally displaced persons along the border." It's unclear how much of that allocation is earmarked specifically for activities inside Myanmar.

USAID engagement with Myanmar is expected to increase with recent diplomatic overtures, and as a result diminish in border areas and refugee camps that Myanmar's military considers sanctuaries for armed rebels. USAID mission director Michael Yates told civil society groups in Mae Sot on January 27 that his agency had just signed a new program, including a microfinance project, to work in central Myanmar.

"It's clear that you are here not doing this for money... but because you are deeply and passionately committed to working together across ethnic minorities," said Yates, in words that sounded like a farewell speech to many of the groups in attendance at the meeting.

USAID's Bangkok office declined to answer Asia Times Online's questions regarding its continued financial support and commitment to Mae Sot-based organizations, including ones like the Mae Tao Clinic and the Medical Burmese Association that provide crucial health assistance to refugee camps and conflict-ridden areas inside Myanmar.

Engagement with Myanmar's nominally civilian new government has become a matter of priority for many Western governments and their attached aid agencies. With the new political opening, many seem keen to shift their focus and resources away from the border and towards establishing operations inside the country. The United Kingdom's main aid agency, UKAID, currently among Myanmar's biggest donors, declined to respond to ATol e-mails requesting information about its future financial support and commitment along the Thai-Myanmar border.

ECHO has shown a comparatively more transparent policy, supported by reports, documents and public relations materials outlining its activities. "ECHO is in Burma/Myanmar since 2005 and we have increased our budget also because we've see an increase in our ability to implement the projects," said ECHO's Mathias Eick. "There is a general change of focus but this does not mean we are forgetting about the refugees."

Apart from government aid agencies, whose commitments depend on decisions coming from higher levels of government, non-governmental organizations are also shifting their priorities. Others are being pushed to abandon their commitments. Last December, Doctors Without Borders (DWB) withdrew from Thailand after 35 years of providing training health programs and emergency assistance in border areas.

The medical group left after "months and months of negotiations with the Thai government after failing to get permission to provide health care to the undocumented [Myanmar] migrants and vulnerable populations in Thailand," according to a DWB press statement.

Border observers say the departure of organizations like DWB and declining levels of private donations threatens to worsen an already dire situation for refugees in Thailand. Over the last 20 years, various groups have reached a growing number of refugees in need of healthcare both in the camps and inside Myanmar. While many groups and organizations are well-trained and technically self-sustaining, they still need outside financial and logistical support to remain viable.

During the January 27 USAID meeting in Mae Sot, several medical, health and humanitarian groups were asked by the USAID representative how they planned to improve their capacity and programs in the next three years. "Without the insurance of funds and donations we cannot make plans for the future three years," was the unanimous response among the organizations in attendance.

Future funding and budget plans are not only in short supply for health and medical providers along the border. Other programs that have provided education to refugees in the camps are now also at risk. "The funding of general education in the medium to long-term future is of particular concern at present," wrote ZOA Refugee Care Thailand in a 2011 report that assessed the state of education in the camps.

The Dutch organization which is now phasing out its operations in Thailand underlined that "the combination of low funding, limited resources and Thai government restrictions has an impact on the quality of education provided in the camps".

After more than 20 years of assistance, there are still many problems in Thailand's camps. The Thai government has thrown up new obstacles to providing aid to refugees, while donors' continue to lack coordination on the ground.

Now, already cash-strapped aid organizations will be pressed through funding shortfalls to devise new strategies to remain effective. Meanwhile, organizations like USAID, UKAID and others are rewarding Myanmar's new government - whose earlier and current incarnation created the humanitarian crisis on the border - with more aid and assistance.

Roberto Tofani

Asia Times

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