"We can say it is hopeless to stay in the camp as refugees because we refugees are like being on the way to nowhere. We are not Thai nationalities and we are not defined as Myanmar nationalities either. And our children were born here stateless'' he said.
Up to today, about 13,600 refugees from the Karenni Camp No.1 in Mae Hong Son district has applied to resettle in America and the applicants will be interviewed in coming September 15th according to Mae Hong Son based UNHCR.
According to the list of the Karenni Refugee Education center, 6,383 students and 497 staff members apply to resettle and 166 medical staff and examiners apply to resettle.
People whom applied to resettle are mostly believers of popular religious and only a few are animists.
Poe Reh said that especially youths are hoping for their future education and as for the parents, they look forward to having a safety surroundings and better future for their children.
More than 20,000 Karenni refugees flee from war torn country, Burma also know as Myanmar. And they have been living in Thailand for 20 years in temporally shelters so-called refugee camps.
Thai authority does not allow refugees to go outside of the camps and if a refugee found outside the camps, they will be arrested and sometimes sent back to Burma.
There are 712 people in total who have already resettled in third countries from the Karenni Refugee Camp 1 in 2006 – 2007. And the countries they have resettled to were Finland, Australia, Sweden, Norway and America. Specifically, there are 25 people resettling in America from Karenni refugee camp 1.
