More than 3,000 Karen refugees staying in Tha Song Yang in Thailand’s Tak Province must return to their homes across the border in a conflict zone in Burma by Feb 15, said Karen sources.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Tuesday, one Karen villager in No Bon camp said, “We must go back even though we don’t want to.”

Sources in the camp said the refugees were reportedly told by Thai authorities that repatriation will begin on Feb. 5 and that all must have gone back by Feb.15.

Though most refugees do not want to go back across the border into a heavily-mined conflict zone, a few reportedly said they do want to return.

Karen sources on the border who participated at a meeting on refugee repatriation on Jan. 26 said the villagers were told by Thai authorities to tell anyone who asked that they wanted to return to their homes.

A camp leader said, “They [Thai authorities] said the situation is stable and the refugees will be able to live in their homes safely. But, if the situation deteriorates again, we will find a solution at the time.”

The Thailand Burmese Border Consortium (TBBC) will also provide rice, beans, salt and fish paste to the refugees for one month and further aid will follow later, the source said.

Meanwhile, the Karen Women Organization (KWO) is urgently appealing the Thai government not to forcibly repatriate the refugees to their homes because of the land-mines and the possibility that fresh conflict could break out at any time.

On January 28, local Thai authorities forced 50 of the more than 3000 refugees to cross the border and clean up their homes in the village of Ler Per Her in preparation for the refugees’ return. The group included 20 women and girls, some under 16 years of age, according to a statement released by the KWO on Tuesday.

The KWO report clearly stated that the area across the border is not safe at all and refugees groups are not willing to return voluntarily at this point in time.

Mines have injured or killed at least five people including a 13-year-old boy and a woman in her third trimester of pregnancy near Ler Per Her since June 2009, according to the Karen Human Rights Group.

The KWO’s Joint Secretary, Blooming Night Zan, said, “This evidence of people stepping on landmines is a sure sign that the place is still very dangerous.”

Although the Thai government is not a signatory of the Refugee Convention, Blooming Night Zan said the KWO is very grateful to His Majesty the King of Thailand and the Royal Thai government for a long history of kindness to refugees.

“We now appeal to the Thai authorities to show your humanitarian kindness again,” she said.

The Karen refugees fled from fighting in Karen State, Burma, in June 2009.

By SAW YAN NAING