Thailand begins handing over humanitarian assistance to Myanmar IDPs

 Thailand's foreign ministry has announced that humanitarian assistance for Myanmar IDPs was delivered from Mae Sot (under Tak province) to Myawaddy (under Karen State) following a handing over ceremony on 25 March.

The Thai ministry in a statement disclosed that the Thai Red Cross Society was providing humanitarian assistance to Myanmar in order to scale up assistance for the people along the Thai-Myanmar border.

The handover ceremony was held on the Thai side of the 2nd Thailand-Myanmar Friendship Bridge.

Thai Red Cross district branch of Mae Sot handed over 4,000 relief bags containing rice, dry food and other essential commodities for 20,000 Myanmar IDPs. Those were received by the Myanmar Red Cross Society chairman from Myawaddy district. The distribution of those items will be conducted by Red Cross Societies from both the neighbouring countries.

The executive director of the ASEAN coordinating centre for humanitarian assistance on disaster management (AHA centre) was also present on the occasion.

As part of the Thai government's ‘humanitarian pilot project’, discussions will be held with concerned partner organizations to explore the ways to enhance assistance for those in need, particularly staying along the Thai-Myanmar border.

Earlier, the Thai government was criticized for not showing interest over engaging with all stakeholders raising concerns about the effectiveness of the initiative.

Thailand should engage in dialogues with all ethnic armed organizations and civil society organizations, rather than handing over everything to Myanmar Red Cross Society, various observers commented.

Myanmar's political activists also noted that Thailand had to cooperate with the Myanmar military junta and even then  they will closely monitor if the assistance actually reaches the genuine IDPs.