'More than 70 mainly Christian Burmese children who fled to Thailand to escape Buddhist militia face imminent repatriation – and the threat of death.
The 76 ethnic minority Karen children, who are aged six to 16, have been cared for at the Glory to God orphanage in Mae Hong Son province, Thailand, after they fled Burma in June to avoid militia attacks. But earlier this month, Thai border police raided the orphanage and told the children to prepare for deportation.
'If the children go back, they will be killed,' a caretaker at the orphanage told International Christian Concern. 'This should never happen.' She added that she had raised the children's plight with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
The children are part of 4,000-strong group of mainly Christian Karen who crossed the River Moei into Thailand in June when the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) raided their villages in Karen State, Burma. The DKBA is thought to be a 'proxy force' of the Burmese military junta which has violently repressed ethnic minorities and sometimes imposed Buddhism as a means of creating a national identity.'
PLEASE PRAY FOR THESE CHILDREN OVER THE CHRISTMAS PERIOD - AND BEYOND!
(Source: International Christian Concern via Release Int.)
