Independent
Mon News Agency
More refugees arrived to Halockhani
camp
More refugees who
fled from armed conflict and taxation in the southern part of Mon State have
regularly arrived to Halockhani Mon refugee camp,
which is under the care of Mon Relief and Development Committe,
said by the MRDC camp committee.
New arrivals of families gradually arrived in April and May,
and they resettled in Halockhani and requested for
food from the camp committee.
“In May, there are 30 refugees and in the last April, 67
refugees arrived to the camp to take safe shelter. Every three or four days, groups of refugees
arrived to the camp”, explained by Nai Kao Chan, a
camp committee member.
He added that the refugees expressed to him that they fled
from their native villages because of worst situation to have regular income
and movement restriction, which affects to their livelihood. Although the refugees came from different
areas, most of them came from Ye Township (of
A family of the refugee, who fled from the southern part of
Ye Township also expressed to IMNA:
“When we went to our workplaces, we have to hold a type of
card issued by (Burmese) army and also a confirmation letter of village
headman. If not, we have to pay
fine. We also have to pay porter
fee. We have to pay taxes to both
(Burmese) army and Nai Hlein
and Nai Bin’s (Mon) splinter group. The army allows the villagers to stay at
their farms between
Last year the Mon refugees received only over 30% of rice
supply of the total required amount of rice from humanitarian NGOs. This year, they received the increased
amount rice supply. As the Mon
refugees are already repatriated into Burma and are not recognized as fully
‘refugees’ accordingly to the international laws and regulations on refugees
and so that they do not receive the full amount of supplies like a refugee
received in Thailand based ‘refugee camp’.
The Mon refugees are repatriated from