A new collection of photographs, focusing on Karen and Karenni refugees in Thailand, is now available to view in the FMO photo gallery.
The Karen people reside primarily in southern and southeastern Myanmar (Burma), where they make up approximately 7 percent of the population. The Karenni people are a subgroup of the Karen people.
An estimated 400,000 Karen and Karenni refugees have fled to Thailand, in order to escape persecuting by Myanmar’s military government, many of them living in camps on the border. These photographs provide a rare glimpse into daily life in two camps along the Thai-Burma border: Mae La and Ban Mai Nai Soi.
The photographs were taken by Amity Malack, a graduate from the Monterey Institute of International Studies.
A full archive of FMO photo collections can be accessed through the FMO photo gallery.
The latest in FMO’s growing selection of podcasts focuses on a new Chinese government policy, recruiting young Uyghur women from majority Uyghur areas of East Turkestan, and transferring them to work in factories in urban areas of eastern China.
Under this policy, thousands of Uyghur women have been removed from their families and placed into substandard working conditions thousands of miles from their homes. Though official propaganda slogans promote the program as an overwhelmingly positive experience for these women, less than two years after the initiation of the policy, it has already left a history of broken promises and shattered families. Local leaders, who are subject to intense pressure from higher levels of the PRC government, have used deception, pressure, and threats in order to recruit women to participate in the program.
In this podcast, four experts talk about the impact this programme is having on these women:
Dr. Michael Dillon, visiting professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing
Omer Kanat, Uyghur Service at Radio Free Asia
Amy Reger, Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP)
Enver Tohti, chairman of the UK Uighur Association
These interviews were recorded between September 2008 and July 2009, by film-maker S L James.
The film ‘Silk Road to Guantanamo: The Story of Adel Hakimjan‘ is now available to view online. Silk Road to Guantanamo shows the plight of ex-Guantanamo Bay inmate Adel Hakimjan, a Chinese Uighur, who was abused, persecuted, traded, and falsely imprisoned. There will be a screening of the film at the Blue Boar Lecture Theatre, Christ Church College, University of Oxford, on Tuesday, 17th November 7.30pm-9.30pm. After the screening there will be a Q & A with the film’s director S L James and Enver Tohti, chairman of the UK Uyghur Association.
Increasingly, growing numbers of displaced people remain displaced for years, even decades. This latest issue of FMR includes 29 articles by academic, international and local actors which assess the impact of such situations on people’s lives and our societies and explore the ‘solutions’ – political, humanitarian and personal.
The issue also includes a spotlight on the ‘internment camps’ in Sri Lanka and a mini-feature on Collective centres, plus a selection of articles on other aspects of forced migration such as rights and responsibilities in Darfur, smuggling in South Africa, IDP health needs in Colombia, climate change agreement talks, peace mediation, and community resilience in East Timor.
FMR is also published in French, Spanish and Arabic and the other language editions will follow soon.
A resource summary to complement FMR 33 is now available on Forced Migration Online and provides links to related key resources websites and documents.
One year on from the war between Georgia and the Russian Federation, thousands of civilians remain stranded from their homes with little prospect of imminent return. An estimated 30,000 people are displaced according to a new Amnesty International report released August 7th. Civilians continue to endure human rights violations and remain directly affected by the aftermath of the conflict.
In a new report entitled ‘Unlock the Camps in Sri Lanka’ Amnesty International has urged Sri Lanka’s government to set free hundreds of thousands of Tamil war refugees currently detained in camps. The report is a wide-ranging critique of the conditions in which some 300,000 Tamils are now living and includes testimony from refugees now abroad, or their relatives.
The newly released DVD title On a Tightrope is an additional resource for understanding the culture and situation of China’s Muslim Uighur minority in the wake of the current crisis.
It is a portrayal of four children at a government orphanage in Xinjiang who despite religious persecution maintain their cultural heritage through learning the ancient Uighur tradition of tightrope walking.
The film has won several awards, including a nomination at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival.
In 2007 Forced Migration Online first highlighted the situation faced by Uyghurs in Xinjiang province, China. The film ‘Lost Nation: Stories from the Uyghur Diaspora’ included an interview with Rabiya Kadeer, the most prominent Uyghur in the world today. Channel 4 news also interviewed Rabiya Kadeer yesterday as the situation has suddenly worsened in Urumqi.
Today Lindsey Hilsum interviewed Rebiya Kadeer, the President of the World Uighur Congress, the most significant Uighur leader, either in China or abroad, and a hate figure for the Chinese government.
Ms Kadeer used to be a businesswoman in Xinjiang, China’s most westerly province, until she was imprisoned for separatist activities.
On her release she fled to the USA where she is now based.
The Chinese government has accused her of orchestrating the violence which erupted in Urumqi yesterday.
The first of its kind, this book provides a rare and unique inside look into the hidden world of ordinary North Koreans. Mike Kim, who worked with refugees on the Chinese border for four years, recounts their experiences of enduring famine, sex-trafficking, and torture, as well as the inspirational stories of those who overcame tremendous adversity to escape the repressive regime of their homeland and make new lives.
In Escaping North Korea, One of the few Americans granted entry into the secretive “Hermit Kingdom,” Kim came to know the isolated country and its people intimately. His North Korean friends entrusted their secrets to him as they revealed the government’s brainwashing tactics and confessed their true thoughts about the repressive regime that so rigidly controls their lives. Civilians and soldiers alike spoke of what North Koreans think of Americans and war with America. Children remembered the suffering they endured through the famine. Women and girls recalled their horrific sex-trafficking experiences. Former political prisoners shared their memories of beatings, torture, and executions in the gulags.
Oxford
10th March 2009, 7.30pm – 9.00pm
Nissan Lecture Theatre
St Antony’s College
University of Oxford
Organised in association with the Refugee Studies Centre, Oxford Department of International Development
London
11th March 2009, 7.00pm – 9.00pm
Room G50
The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London
Organised in association with the SOAS Amnesty Group
This 40-page special issue of Forced Migration Review (FMR), published by the Refugee Studies Centre of Oxford University, reflects discussions at the international conference on the Ten Years of the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement (‘GP10’) held in Oslo on 16-17 October 2008.
The FMR special issue includes shortened versions of some of the conference presentations, plus a selection of other articles, most of which present case studies on the application of the Guiding Principles in different countries.
A new collection of photographs, focusing on Karen and Karenni refugees in Thailand, is now available to view in the FMO photo gallery.
