Working for a refugee policy
Bangkok Post today
The visit to Thailand last week by the United Nations refugee chief may have come just in time to end an increasingly harmful approach to the problem. The government talked to Antonio Guterres realistically with an aim to end the 25-year refugee policy which had reached the point of diminishing returns. Mr Guterres talked to the government and to senior officials in an equally helpful manner. The result just might be a win-win programme that helps both refugees and Thailand. Officials have finally recognised, and rightly so, that the current and often punitive policy towards unfortunate victims of neighbouring regimes is outdated, out of touch and often downright cruel. Mr Guterres' visit came on the heels of the outrageous and demeaning arrest of hundreds of Karen refugees for the high crime of gathering to celebrate their national day.
That high-profile error and lack of heart by the police and government showed perfectly why the old refugee policy had to be abandoned.
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said infamously several years ago that refugees would be treated harshly, and ''the United Nations is not my father''. Last week, Mr Thaksin was not exactly contrite, but obviously realised his insensitive and heartless policy was injuring tens of thousands of innocent men, women and children. Just as importantly, it was seriously harming the Thai image abroad, and costing Thailand losses in both prestige and resources.
The new refugee policy, if officials implement it as they must, will adapt Thailand to the reality that conditions are so appalling in neighbouring countries _ and as far away as the Middle East and North Korea _ that the refugee flow will continue.
For starters, the roughly 165,000 Karen refugees in nine border camps will receive identification cards. This will enable them to find temporary work, put their children in schools and, in short, have the refugees contribute to their own welfare in a manner that helps their host country.
Just as optimistically, Mr Guterres committed the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to providing more help in administration costs, and Western nations to providing more resettlement opportunities.
While there are bound to be problems with this new refugee policy _ employer exploitation of a huge new workforce, for one _ it is a hugely positive step and approaches the problem in a realistic manner.
It can also result in weeding out the ''good'' refugees from the bad, particularly the underground sex industry responsible for much of the Aids epidemic.
If there is a downside to the new policy toward refugees, it is the absence of the governments which are responsible for the problem. On three sides, Thailand is bordered by countries whose regimes too often mistreat their citizens and are less competent at meeting their needs. It matters little whether refugees arrive in Thailand to escape political persecution or to seek a better life.
The governments of Burma, Laos and Cambodia are unable or unwilling to care enough to keep their own citizens at home to work to improve their countries. As for Burma in particular, the regime effectively forces huge numbers of citizens to flee for safety in Thailand by the most brutal and sometimes murderous policies imaginable. Chinese poverty has added tens of thousands more refugees, most commonly in the underground economy and often in the shady, dangerous sex industry. Political refugees from Iran, North Korea and other brutal nations have consistently sought help in Thailand over the past 30 years.
Thailand, with the help of the UNHCR and the international community, can and should adapt in a manner that treats both political and economic refugees compassionately. But neither our neighbours nor foreign friends should forget that the first responsibility of the Thai government is toward Thai citizens. Each official reassigned to refugee security and care, each tax baht used for food and education of refugees is lost to similar projects for Thais.
Now that Thailand is committed to a proper, sympathetic policy towards the unfortunate refugees, it is time to consider policies by the UN and international community towards the countries that make the problem in the first place.
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