Food crisis looms in refugee camp on Thai-Burma border

May 30, 2008

Lawi Weng:

With camp authorities in Ban Don Yang, on the Thai-Burma border announcing a cut in rations for next month more and more desperate refugee camp inmates are attempting to find work outside.

Many refugees grow paddy on the mountainside for food. Some look for vegetables or bamboo shoots while others hunt for wild animals in the jungle to earn money, worried as they are about an imminent food crisis in the camp, said Nai Taramon, a refugee in the camp.

With many of them working in the jungle, 60 refugees were afflicted by malaria, a type of virus PF last month. This is the first time malaria has been detected in the camp, he said.

Recently, the Thailand Burma Border Consortium (TBBC) has made an urgent request for USD 6.8 million as aid to the Burmese refugees.

The camp will provide full ration for this month.

The camp recently provided one basket for adults and half a basket of rice for children under five years old.

Many are worried about the impending food crisis in the wake of the cut in rations next month. Not many know how much of the rations will be slashed.

There are 15 kilograms of rice in one basket. One basket is made up of 64 cans.

"We will not have enough rice if they cut off rations. We have to work outside the camp. If not, we will starve," said Taramon.

Ban Don Yang camp is located on the Thai-Burma border in Sangkhlaburi District, Kanchanaburi Province southern Thailand on Thai-Burma border.

The camp is close to the jungle and the refugees have easy into the forests, which is a liberated area under control of the Mon Army along the Mon Halockhani refugee camp.

Many refugees are worried because many NGOs are focused on cyclone victims now and they will be neglected.

TBBC is an umbrella organization providing assistance to more than 140,000 refugees from Burma housed in 10 refugee camps along the Thai-Burma border.

Written by HURFOM · Filed Under News