Refugees on Thai border: Commission steps in with aid

In December 1994, some 95.000 Karen, an ethnic minority of Myanmar (Burma), fled to camps situated on the Burmese-Thai border, after the collapse of the Karen National Union, one of their political movements.

The European Union will contribute 1.52 million ECU to an emergency relief operation. The European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO) will work with French, Dutch and Maltese non-governmental organisations on a six-month project to help Karen refugees survive precarious conditions in their camps.

The priorities are:

o Help with sanitation and malaria control. The camps are sited in areas hosting some of the world's most resistant strains of malaria-bearing mosquitoes.

o Delivering emergency food supplies.

o Supplying basic survival kits including shelters and blankets ahead of the rainy season.