Regional study implemented by IWMI with financial support from the Asian Development Bank (RETA 5812)

In Thailand's Tak province there
are 60,520 registered migrant
workers and an estimated 150,000
unregistered migrant workers from
Burma. Fleeing the social and political
problems engulfing Burma, they are
mostly employed in farming, garment
making, domestic service, sex and
construction industries. There is also
a significant number of Burmese
living in camps. Despite Thailand�s
developed public health system and
infrastructure, Burmese women face
language and cultural barriers and

The plight of Burma's internally displaced persons has largely been overlooked by the
international community and the Burmese government itself. Villagers in the country's war
zones nevertheless have suffered for decades the adverse effects of conflict. For some,
displacement has become a way of life and a multi-generational phenomenon.
Displacement wherever it occurs profoundly changes the persons forced to move. People
lose belongings, jobs, and loved ones. The case of the internally displaced in southern Shan
State is no different.

Burma’s poverty means that even providing funerals for loved ones can be difficult if not impossible. But a new social welfare association is lending a helping hand...

Contains introduction; background; the principle orientations of Praia; status of implementation of the Praia orientation in CILSS member states (Burkina Faso, The Gambia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Chad); land tenure situation of the underprivileged groups; management of land conflicts; implementation difficulties and lessons learned; overview of the land tenure situation in some coastal West African countries (Benin, Ghana, Togo); emerging land issues; towards regional charter on rural land in the Sahel and West Africa; appendices with summary table of the policies, legislations an

Compilation of the information available in the Global IDP
Database of the Norwegian Refugee Council
(as of 13 November, 2003)..."

...‘The population displacement’ is a forgotten problem in Burma. While many people are talking ‘negotiation’ and ‘national reconciliation’, but there is no real solution how to stop the displacement in the country. It is also a serious issue which is necessary to consider.

However, the population displacement always relates to war, and so that it is needed to stop war if we want to stop the population displacement problems

In a nation of 50 million people there are estimates that up to 1 million are Internally Displaced Persons (IDP). Despite the relatively recent use of the phrase internally displaced people in the context of Burma, there is evidence that the practices that lead to this displacement have been in place for a long period of time.

Background:

The situation of internally displaced people (IDPs), in Burma remained critical throughout 2002. The U.S. State Department’s country report for 2002 on Burma estimated that forced relocations had produced hundreds of thousands of refugees, with as many as one million internally displaced persons.

"Throughout 2002 the military continued to forcibly relocate minority villages, especially in areas where ethnic activists and rebels were active, and in areas targeted for the development of international tourism." (Human Rights Watch World Report 2003)

According to the US Committee for Refugees, there are more than 450,000 Burmese refugees and asylum seekers in countries neighboring Burma. Driven out by the ruling military regimes unrelenting policies and practices that violate their human rights, refugees and aylum seekers have fled to Thailand, Bangladesh, India and Malaysia. The human rights abuses committed by the SPDC include forced relocations, rape, forced labor, torture, the confiscation of land and property, arbitrary arrest and lack of personal security.