Northern Thailand
Angelina Jolie Visits Refugee Camp in Mae Hong Son
Angelina Jolie chats with a Karenni refugee at the Ban Mai Nai Soi refugee camp in Mae Hong Son on Friday. (AFP/UNHCR/Roger Arnold photo)
MAE HONG SON – Hollywood actress and UN Good Will Ambassador Angelina Jolie made a brief stop in northern Thailand to call for global efforts to put an end to the refugee problem.
The special envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees used a visit to the Ban Mai Nai Soi camp in Muang district to deliver her message.
“Preventing armed conflict should be a collective responsibility of the international community,” the UN agency quoted her as saying during her two-hour visit to the camp on Friday.
“This staggering surge in refugee numbers shows that the world is failing to meet that responsibility. This is an unjust and unsustainable situation.
“The only answer is to devote greater efforts and resources to addressing conflict worldwide – there are no humanitarian solutions to political problems.”
Ban Mai Nai Soi shelters 11,890 refugees of the Karen ethnic group fleeing fighting in Myanmar. Another camp nearby at Ban Mae Surin in Khun Yuam district houses another 3,114.
The Thai government classifies those living in the camps as displaced persons as it does not recognise them as refugees.
Jolie delivered her message on World Refugee Day which falls on June 20. About 1,500 refugees and officials joined the event at the camp.
The co-star of Maleficent, which is currently showing in Thai cinemas, had a rough trip to Mae Hong Son.
Bad weather prevented her private jet from flying into the province from Chiang Mai so she had to take a road trip before returning to Chiang Mai on a chartered flight.
She left Chiang Mai for an unknown location on Friday night by her private jet. – Bangkok Post
