Moung Nu, 33, his wife Mu Ke, 26, and their four children aged 11,
8, 7 and 5 yesterday left Thailand with IOM to start new lives in
the United States.

The family, who fled Myanmar to seek asylum in a remote, border
refugee camp in Thailand's northern Mae Hong Son province, will
make their new home in Minneapolis–St. Paul, Minnesota.

Their departure, ahead of World Refugee Day this weekend, marks
a milestone in IOM's refugee resettlement programme in Thailand,
bringing the total number of refugees moved since the start of the
programme in 2004 to 80,000. 

Moung Nu's family brings the number of refugees accepted by the
US to over 62,000. The remaining 18,000 have been accepted by other
resettlement countries including Australia, Canada, Denmark,
Finland, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands and
the United Kingdom.

This year IOM Thailand has resettled over 5,000 refugees from
nine Thai border camps – almost all of them Karen and Karenni
ethnic minorities fleeing conflict and persecution in Myanmar. In
addition to the individuals resettled through the IOM Thailand
operation, the organisation has resettled more than 7,500 refugees
world-wide thus far in 2010.

The ongoing operation, which includes medical screening for five
resettlement countries, cultural orientation for six countries and
travel to a total of 11 countries, follows over 17,000 departures
in 2009, 17,450 in 2008 and 15,000 in 2007.

IOM's 35-year history of refugee resettlement from Thailand
began in 1975 in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, when it helped
nearly half a million Indochinese refugees from Vietnam, Laos and
Cambodia to leave the country and start new lives abroad.

The programme was relaunched in 2004, when the US offered to
resettle 15,000 Lao Hmong refugees from the Wat Tham Krabok temple
camp in Saraburi province. The US subsequently extended its offer
to include nine border camps housing some 140,000 refugees from
Myanmar.

IOM works closely with the Royal Thai government, the UN refugee
agency (UNHCR) and the governments of resettlement
countries.  

For more information please contact:

Chris Lom

IOM Bangkok

Tel: +66.819275215

E-mail: "mailto:clom@iom.int">clom@iom.int