Kyodo News: Myanmar refugees leave Thai camp to resettle in Japan

Kyodo News: Myanmar refugees leave Thai camp to resettle in Japan
Wed 22 Sep 2010
Filed under: On The Border, Refugees, Regional
Mera, Thailand – Five Myanmarese families who will be taken in by the Japanese government under the “third country” refugee resettlement program next week left Mera refugee camp in northwestern Thailand on Wednesday.After undergoing medical checkups at an International Organization for Migration facility in Mae Sot, Thailand, the 27 ethnic Karen people will leave Thailand for Japan on Sept. 27.

The families are the first group of 90 Myanmar refugees whom Japan will accept over the next three years under the third-country refugee resettlement pilot program.

The Karen families bid farewell to their relatives and friends in Camp Mera, where they have lived for over 10 years, as they boarded the bus to Mae Sot earlier Wednesday.

A 36-year-old man who will be heading to Japan with six family members said he could not sleep the previous night because of nervousness, adding that he would miss the people at the camp but is happy that he is going to Japan.

The five families completed a 20-day training course on Japanese language and customs in August. After arriving in Japan, they will stay initially in Tokyo for six months to learn Japanese and receive job training.

It is up to them to decide where they will eventually resettle and what jobs they will do.

Camp Mera, the biggest refugee camp in Thailand, is home to about 50,000 Myanmar refugees who have fled their country, mainly due to armed conflicts between the Myanmar military and Karen National Union rebels.