TAK, Feb 21 (TNA) – Over 500 Myanmar refugees displaced
in Thailand have returned to their hometown in a third batch of the voluntary
repatriation under the UNHCR support.
The 516 refugees who had lived in five refugee camps in
Thailand’s northern Tak province boarded vans at a border crossing checkpoint
near Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge in Mae Sot district on Wednesday. 
Many of them fled arm conflicts in Myanmar’s Kayin and Kayah
States in 1984.
The voluntary repatriation process by the governments of
Thailand and Myanmar with the support of UNHCR gives the refugees the
opportunity to rebuild their lives in their home country.
Myanmar authorities at the border provided assistance for
the refugees including immigration support with documentation and medical
screening before going to their final destinations in Southeastern Myanmar.
With UNHCR-supported process, the first group of refugees
who expressed a clear desire returned to Myanmar in October 2016, followed by
the second group in May 2018.
Thailand has sheltered the refugees at nine camps in four
provinces; Tak, Kanchanaburi, Ratchaburi and Mae Hong Son.
There are about 100,000 refugees from Myanmar, mostly of
Karen and Karenni ethnicity, from Myanmar living in the nine camps. (TNA)
