Canadian top envoy meets Thai interior minister

BANGKOK, February 20 (TNA) - Canadian Ambassador in Bangkok Philip Calvert met Thai Interior Minister Charupong Ruangsuwan on Wednesday to inquire about assistance for Rohingya migrants from neighbouring Myanmar. The Thai government's assistance for migrants along the Thai-Myanmar border, including that for Rohingya Muslim ethnics, was a topic that the Canadian top envoy discussed with the Thai interior minister, in addition to his congratulations for the newly-appointed interior minister and talks on Thai-Canadian relations. After the meeting, the Thai interior minister told journalists he had informed the Canadian top diplomat that there are now about 1,700 Rohingya migrants in Thailand, about 100 of them are women and children, and the Rohingya Muslims have been distributed to several facilities, about 200 people at each place, because there is not a single shelter which is big enough to accommodate all of them. The Thai interior minister insisted that the Rohingya women and the children have received good care, acknowledging, however, that Thailand does not have a plan to build a new migrant camp, as the Kingdom has already heavily burdened with running nine existing camps with over 100,000 refugees. According to the interior minister, third-party countries have admitted about 20,000 refugees from Thailand over the past decade and he, thus, told the Canadian Ambassador that Thailand would like authorities of other countries to convince the Myanmar government to accept Rohingya people as the Myanmar citizens. (TNA)