Kidnapped Padaung Turn Up in Mae Hong Son
Story of Long Neck Karen Throws Light on Dark Side of Refugee Life
Nov 14, 2008
It was on July 3, 2008 that 11 ethnic Padaung were reported missing from Mae Hong Son, on the Thai-Myanmar border. The group included seven adults and four children. It was thought that they had been taken to work in what many, including Kitty McKinsey of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), have dubbed "human zoos".
Tourism and the Problem of "Human Zoos"
The prospect of visiting a ‘long-necked’ Karen village, usually set up for this very purpose, has long been a major lure for foreign tourists. Tourists pay a fee to visit and take photographs, providing a very modest income for the long-necked women who pose stiffly among their souvenir stalls. The women receive about 1,500 baht (about US$45) per month.
The Bangkok Post reported that the investigation into the disappearance of the 11 Padaung suspected that a businessman who had opened a new tourist attraction in the south of the country was involved. The case received both media and legal attention, and Burmese News International (BNI) reported that the smugglers were under such pressure that the group was sent back to Mae Hong Son at the end of August.
An official of the Mae Hong Son based anti-human trafficking and protection programme told the BNI: “We are trying to find out who smuggled out the group illegally to another province ……. We consider it human trafficking.”
It is not the first time that this has happened. The US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants’ World Refugee Survey 2008 report on Thailand notes that “In September 2007 private tour operators reportedly kidnapped six ethnic Padaung refugees from Mae Hong Son to display them for tourists in Chiang Mai …. and threatened them with death if they refused.”
A Tribal Minority from Myanmar
The Kayan, their preferred name, are a sub-group of the ethnic Karenni minority. They arrived in Thailand as refugees in the 1980s, fleeing the long-running ethnic insurgencies and repression of Myanmar.
The UNHCR Fundraising Report on Thailand says that while Thailand has provided asylum to around 1.2 million refugees over the last 30 years, life for refugees in Thailand is very difficult. Refugees have no formal status, and are considered illegal immigrants by the Thai authorities. They are subject to arbitrary arrest, detention and possible deportation.
The UNHCR has initiated a growing resettlement programme, with many refugees going on to make new lives in the USA, Australia and Canada. In January the BBC reported that some 20 Kayan have not been able to take part, as the Thai authorities have refused to allow them to leave the country, despite firm offers to resettle them in Finland and New Zealand.
The suspicion is that they are being kept in Thailand due to their role in the tourist industry. The Thai authorities argue the Kayan do not qualify for the resettlement programme as they have chosen to live outside the refugee camps. UNHCR spokeswoman Kitty McKinsey told the BBC: “It comes as a great surprise that the Thai authorities are criticising them for living outside the camps, when it was the Thai authorities who wanted them to live outside.”
Although some Kayan women have removed their neck rings as a mark of protest, the Kayan continue to be caught between a rock and a hard place – they can choose between exploitation as a sideshow attraction in Thailand or take their chances in the continuing repression of Myanmar.
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