Summary. "During an April 18-23 visit by PRM Bureau DAS Kelly Ryan, the Thai government gave its approval for a multi-year program to resettle Burmese refugees residing in camps along the Thai-Burma border to the United States. DAS Ryan told Thai officials that the United States wanted to begin this program in the Tham Hin camp, was prepared to offer resettlement to all eligible registered refugees in camp, and would be able to begin processing before the end of ¶2005. Thai National Security Council head General Winai expressed some concern that such a program could pull more Burmese into Thailand and asked the United States to pursue the program as discreetly as possible. DAS Ryan agreed that it was important to try and deter a pull factor and said that the USG viewed Tham Hin as a pilot and would make decisions about how best to proceed in resettling refugees from the other camps after further analysis. The Thai also told Ryan that the long-delayed Provincial Admissions Boards for screening Burmese refugees would begin operations in May. General Winai indicated that the Thai government was looking favorably at establishing the site currently being used to process Hmong for U.S. resettlement as a more permanent facility for Burmese resettlement processing. DAS Ryan lauded the Thai decision to permit expanded vocational and educational training for Burma border camp refugees and urged the Thai to permit income generation as well. DAS Ryan also urged the Thai to permit UNHCR access to Chinese dissident Lu Decheng." End summary.