Some 8,700 Burmese refugees have been moved to third countries over the past year and a half, and a further 10,000 are expected to depart this year, according to Erika Feller, the assistant UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

 Feller, who spoke at a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents Club in Bangkok late on Thursday, said she was "very pleased to see the change in atmosphere at Tham Hin" camp in Kanchanaburi.

 The camp was crowded and "was a very depressed place when I toured there two years ago, but it's changed remarkably", she told journalists.

 "Resettlement has been a major factor in that regard - it has created more space and given people expectancy," she said.

A downside to the resettlement programme is that the camps have lost a lot of teachers and medics, but work is being done to replace those service providers,

Feller added.

 The assistant commissioner said more than 80,000 Burmese refugees out of the 140,000 or so in camps along the border had been given identity cards recently, and this was also "very positive".

 She urged Thai authorities to pursue plans for the refugees to be able to work in the immediate vicinity of their camps, so they can develop livelihood opportunities and employment skills.

 Feller also said she had spoken with the Thai and Lao authorities about the 155 Hmong refugees at Nong Khai detention centre.

 She said the UNHCR was concerned because most of the refugees - about 90 of them - were young children and the facility was "very cramped" with little privacy.

 "We explored the possibility perhaps to move them away from Nong Khai to a more receptive environment - better for children."

 Feller and UNHCR country representative Hasim Utkan both said the 155 Hmong should be resettled abroad, as many of those at Nong Khai were registered "people of concern" who should not be forcibly returned.

However, she admitted that Vientiane would prefer that the Hmong at Nong Khai be "returned home".

Thai officials are due to discuss the matter with their Lao counterparts in a few weeks' time when a bilateral border committee is due to meet.

A move to deport the Hmong at the Nong Khai IDC in late January provoked a near riot at the detention centre, with Hmong men barracking themselves inside and threatening to commit mass suicide.

Hmong groups in the United States say Vientiane is determined to deport the 155, because they include two prominent leaders of jungle Hmong groups who have extensive knowledge of massacres and the allegedly brutal campaign to quell the last pockets of Hmong "resistance" in central northern Laos.

Feller said Vientiane feared that if the Hmong were resettled it would create a precedent and a "pull factor" effect encouraging more refugees.

 But she is hopeful that a positive humanitarian solution can be found.

 "We hope they will be able to allowed to pursue a future outside Thailand, and Laos, if Thailand and Laos can agree on that."

Jim Pollard

The Nation