(Mizzima) – The Umpiem Refugee Camp has received US$ 30,000 to help provide food and shelter for thousands of Burmese following a fire that destroyed about one-third of the camp on Friday.
A child who was declared missing has been found in good health, officials said. No deaths occurred. Twenty people were injured, none seriously.
The blaze destroyed 390 homes. Also two mosques, two nursery schools, one security office, one Muslim Women’s office and two primary schools were destroyed, said Sally Thompson, the deputy director of the Thailand Burma Border Consortium (TBBC).
To contribute to the rebuilding and aid fund, go to http://www.tbbc.org/donate/donate.htm
The damage estimate to dwellings and other structures was estimated in the area of $400,000. The cause of the blaze is unknown.
TBBC is a consortium of 12 international non-governmental agencies, including Christian Aid, which has provided food and shelter to refugees on the Thai-Burma border for more than 27 years.
According to figures compiled in May 2011 by the TBBC, there were more than 17,400 Burmese refugees in the Umpiem camp in Tak Province, Thompson said.
The refugee camps along the Thai-Myanmar border house more than 145,000 people who fled Burma due to economic hardship and fighting between the Burmese army and ethnic armed groups. Many have lived in the camps for decades.
A resettlement programme has allowed several thousand refugees to move to third countries but the flow of people continues across the border each year as others seek safety from the threat of fighting between Burmese government troops and armed ethnic groups.