UNHCR Begins First Voluntary Repatriation of Myanmar Refugees From Thailand
Some 68 Myanmar refugees voluntarily returned home from Thailand on Tuesday. The U.N. Refugee Agency called this first voluntary repatriation of Myanmar refugees a “milestone.”
Both the Thai and Myanmar governments expressed their support.
The refugees will be resettled in various towns within Karen State, the state’s chief minister Nang Khin Htwe Myint told local Myanmar media.
Nine camps along the Thai-Myanmar border house around 103,000 refugees and internally displaced persons. More than 80,000 are ethnic Karen from eastern Myanmar who fled violence and persecution while the country was under military rule.
“This particular movement is a milestone but it won’t be the start of a large exodus,” Iain Hall, UNHCR’’s senior field coordinator, told Reuters.
Rumors have surfaced that the Thai government plans to close down the camps but Hall dismissed this claim.
“We’re not promoting return and we’ve made that clear with both governments,” said Hall. “We don’t yet believe it is the time to return but of course these people have the right to return if they want to.”
UNHCR Preparing to Shelter 150,000 Iraqis Who Flee Mosul
The U.N. will soon be able to accommodate 150,000 people from Mosul and surrounding areas who are displaced by the Iraqi-led offensive to recapture the city from the so-called Islamic State.
“The preparations are proceeding well … UNHCR is going to have in two or three days 30,000 tents in Iraq, enough for 150,000 people,” U.N. high commissioner for refugees Filippo Grandi told reporters in Jordan.
Up to a million people could be displaced by the fighting.
Grandi said that the top concern was “to find enough sites to be able to receive this huge mass of people should it come out of Mosul,” adding that the U.N. is negotiating with the Iraqi and Kurdish governments to help those who flee.
“The outflow of displaced people is not yet from the city of Mosul but from the outskirts,” Grandi said. He added that the U.N. has already assisted 7,500 people who fled the outskirts of Mosul and about a thousand Iraqis “have crossed into Syria.”
Syrian Child Refugees Making Clothes for British Companies in Turkey
A BBC investigative documentary has uncovered Syrian child refugees working illegally in Turkish factories making clothes for British retailer Marks and Spencer (M&S) and online store Asos.
BBC journalists also found adult refugees working in factories distressing jeans for Zara and Mango under hazardous conditions.
Refugees as young as 15 were working more than 12 hours a day and earning around $1.22 (£1) an hour, far below the minimum wage in Turkey.
An M&S spokesperson said: “We had previously found no evidence of Syrian workers employed in factories that supply us, so we were very disappointed by these findings, which are extremely serious and are unacceptable to M&S.” The company has vowed to offer “permanent legal employment” to Syrians working in the factory.
Asos claimed it had no idea of the child labor practices going on. It offered financial support for the refugee children found working in its factories so they can return to school and for the adult refugees until they are legally employed.
Danielle McMullan, from the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, told the BBC: “It’s not enough [for the brands] to say we didn’t know about this, it’s not our fault. They have a responsibility to monitor and to understand where their clothes are being made and what conditions they are being made in.”
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