Refugees International: Articles: Press Release: RI President Ken Bacon Conducts Mission to Cambodia and Thailand

Home About Us Donate Where We Work Issues Blog

Press Release: RI President Ken Bacon Conducts Mission to Cambodia and Thailand

Cambodian woman with baby in scarf in field
11/03/2004

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

CONTACT:
Megan Fowler, 202-828-0110 x214

Refugees International President Ken Bacon Conducts Mission to Cambodia and Thailand

Washington, DC – Ken Bacon, President of Refugees International (RI), left for Cambodia and Thailand today to survey conditions of indigenous people and to promote opportunities for refugee resettlement in the United States. He and Ghazal Veghedi, Development and Outreach Assistant, will concentrate on promoting development programs for the Phnong people in Cambodia’s remote eastern Mondulkiri Province. In Thailand, they will focus on two major issues: protection of the Laotian Hmong at Wat Tham Krabok and the expansion of opportunities for Burmese refugees in Thailand.

“The goal of the trip is to help continue the progress that Refugees International has made for the Phnong and Hmong peoples in Southeast Asia,” Bacon said.

The aim of the trip to Mondulkiri, along with meetings with government, UN and other officials in Phnom Penh, is to find ways to augment the development and education programs for the Phnong. In 1999, RI helped resettle a group of Phnong refugees returning to Cambodia from Thailand. RI arranged for food from the World Food Program and has supported Cambodia Family Development Services, a local agency, to establish micro-loan and other economic development programs.

In Thailand, RI has worked closely during the last year with the U.S. State Department and the Thai government to help resettle up to 15,000 Hmong refugees from Wat Tham Krabok, a temple near Bangkok, in the U.S.

“The resettlement program that RI began in 1999 has been going extremely well,” said Bacon. “However, there are still pockets of people who are not being resettled and whose progress remains undefined. These people deserve to be helped.”

Thailand also hosts more than 300,000 Burmese refugees, most from minority ethnic groups from eastern Burma, who have fled oppression by the military dictatorship. Many of the Burmese in Thailand have have waited in vain for decades to go home and could be a logical population for resettlement in the U.S. thus alleviating overcrowding in Thai refugee camps.

Refugees International, a 25-year-old organization that generates lifesaving humanitarian assistance and protection for displaced people around the world and works to end the conditions that create displacement, has been advocating on behalf of Cambodian refugees since its founding. In addition to the mission to Cambodia and Thailand, the organization currently has missions in or scheduled for Southern Sudan and Ethiopia, Northern Uganda, Estonia and Bangladesh.

Kenneth Bacon became the President of Refugees International in 2001, after serving for more than six years as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs and Pentagon spokesman. Bacon and Veghedi will be in Cambodia from Nov. 5 to Nov. 12 and in Bangkok from Nov. 13 to Nov. 16 and again on Nov. 20. From Nov. 17-Nov. 20, they will be visiting the Mae Tao, Mae La and Umpien refugee camps. To schedule an interview, please contact Megan Fowler at (202) 828-0110 x214 or email megan@refintl.org.

###