Karen Internally Displaced Persons wonder when they will be able to go home
Sitting in his new bamboo hut in Ler Per Her camp for Internally Displaced Persons, located on the bank of
“We are living in fear all the time,” he says about the lives of IDPs. His words reflect the general feeling among IDPs from
Since 2002 at least 100,000 ethnic Karen have been displaced because of fighting between the Burmese army and the Karen National Liberation Army, and to avoid abuses at the hands of
At least 650,000 have been displaced along
Ler Per Her is a jungle camp located about 100 kilometers north of the Thai border town Mae Sot. A group of 670 people, including many children, lives in fragile bamboo huts in this small Karen National Union-controlled area. The camp operates like a well-organized and stable village situated within the mountainous border region of eastern
The camp’s clinic is a busy place, with patients registering for healthcare, having their blood tested, and receiving a host of other treaments. Children are particularly at risk in the camp. Malaria, pneumonia and serious gastrointestinal problems like diarrhoea and dysentery are common in the rainy season to those living in the deep monsoon forest. The largest aid group working with Burmese refugees, the Thailand Burma Border Consortium, has reported that child mortality and malnutrition rates among IDPs are double
Saw Eh Nge, a 42-year-old chief medic, worries that the children will suffer greater incidents of illness as the rainy season progresses.
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