50,000th Burmese refugee from Thai border to be resettled in West, says UN

Geneva (The Nation)- The 50,000th refugee from Burma to leave the camps along the country's border with Thailand for resettlement abroad will arrive in the US on Tuesday, the United Nations Refugee Agency said.

Some 112,000 refugees remain along the Thai-Burmese border, in a problem that has now being going on for 20 years.

The man who will be the 50,000th refugee to be flown to the West, will resettle in New Jersey with his wife and daughter, after living and teaching primary school in a camp since 1996.

The resettlement of Burmese refugees is the largest project of its kind in the world, as the UN generally pushes for refugees to return to their home nation once problems have been settled.

The UNHCR said it does not expect the 112,000 remaining refugees in camps there to be able to return home "any time soon."

The Burmese refugee resettlement programme has been running since 2004. //DPA