Loving

Loving-kindness key to solution, says woman senator

Migrant issue 

Quoting a famous saying of Lord Buddha, to love one's neighbors "Just as a mother protects her only child with her life," Ms Tuenjai Deeted, a senator and longtime grassroots activist, opened the one-day seminar on Durable Solutions to Refugees, Migrant Workers and Stateless People in Thailand yesterday in Chiangmai.

"When there is metta-tham (loving kindness), there are no territorial boundaries to obstruct your worldly outlook," she said.

A no less prominent speaker than her, Jahansha Assadi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees regional representative, concurred. "(The point is) not to see refugees merely as burdens. As in the past, they can also become valuable contributors to our societies."

Professor Attachak Sattayanurak of Chiangmai University also said, "If the Thai society were truly a humanitarian one, problems such as this would be easily resolved."

Karn Sermchaiwong of the International Rescue Committee shared a different view. Concluding his presentation on Refugees Outside Camps, he commented, "Ours is only a country of destination. Whatever we do will not work until and unless the country of origin is willing to change."

However, Dr. Alan Smith, presenting his paper on Political, Economic and Social Development in Burma was yet to see a change for the better. "There are ceasefire agreements with several armed groups," he said. "But most of the country is still inaccessible..... Unless ceasefire agreements are followed by an attractive economic programs, the migration will continue. Instead what we are witnessing right now is economic stagnation."

The seminar was attended by 90 participants from government departments including the National Security Council, academic institutions, NGOs, foreign embassies, Thai labor unions and business sectors. It was jointly organized by CARE Thailand, IRC, Mekong Sub-Regional Program, Migrant Action Program and Friends Without Borders.

Another workshop has been planned for June.