Angelina Jolie, UN Envoy, Asks Thailand to Aid Myanmar Refugees

Angelina Jolie, UN Envoy, Asks Thailand to Aid Myanmar Refugees
By Michael Heath

Feb. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Angelina Jolie, a United Nations goodwill ambassador, asked Thailand to accept Muslim migrants fleeing Myanmar’s military authorities during a visit to refugee camps on the Thai-Myanmar border.

Thailand is facing an international outcry over its treatment of the minority Muslim Rohingya group, after CNN published a photo showing armed forces towing refugee boats away from the shore on Jan. 26. Five of six boats towed in late December sank, killing several hundred people, CNN reported.

Jolie issued the plea during a visit yesterday to camps in northern Thailand that house 111,000 mostly ethnic Karen and Karenni refugees from Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.

Witnessing the government’s hospitality to the refugees sheltering in camps “makes me hope that Thailand will be just as generous to the Rohingya refugees who are now arriving on their shores,” the Oscar-winning actress said, according to a statement on the UN’s Web site.

Thousands of Rohingyas flee Myanmar each year because of land confiscation, arbitrary taxation, forced eviction and denial of citizenship, according to Amnesty International. Some members of the estimated population of 3 million also attempt to settle in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia and India.

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said earlier this week that his government won’t build a camp for the Rohingyas and will continue to expel them.

“They are not refugees,” Abhisit said in Bangkok on Jan. 4. “Our policy is to push them out of the country because they are illegal migrants.”

The government has said it is investigating the CNN report and the navy has denied allegations the boats were sent out without engines and adequate food and water.

Thailand has asked the UN to join a regional forum to help address the migrant issue.

Indonesia Rescue

Indonesia this week rescued 198 Rohingya refugees found adrift in a wooden boat after a trip that killed 26 of them. The vessel traveled for 21 days before it was discovered and towed to a port in the westernmost province of Aceh, the navy said.

Indonesia’s government plans to deport 193 Bangladeshis and Rohingyas who landed on Sabang Island in Aceh province on Jan. 7 as they have been designated economic migrants, the Foreign Ministry said last month.

Since becoming a goodwill ambassador for the UN refugee agency in 2001, Jolie, 33, has visited refugees in more than 20 countries, according to the UNCHR’s Web site.