UNHCR provides 800 tents to help Karen refugees

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Saturday dispatched two teams of rescue staffs to provide 800 tents to help over 2,300 Karen refugees whose shelters in a refugee camp were destroyed by a massive fire Friday night.

A UNHCR official said Saturday 32 refugees were killed and four others were severely injured in the fire that ravaged through the Baan Mae Surin refugee camp, located in Khun Yuam district of Mae Hong Son.

The official said the fire caused over 400 families of the refugees to have no shelter.

Mae Hong Son Governor Naruemol Palwat Saturday visited the camp to hand out clothes to the refugees and held a meeting of government agencies concerned with NGOs and the UNHCR officials to discuss how to provide further assistance to the refugees.

The fire started at about 4 pm and it took fire-fighters more than two hours to control the blaze.

The governor said the fire started when a refugee in Zone 1 was cooking and the blaze quickly spread to Zone 4.

She said she had mobilised officials from agencies concerned to help the refugees.

A Thai military official said most of the victims were killed in the camp hospital because the fire spread so quickly that the patients could not be moved out in time.