Thai Navy Deploy ‘Floating Base’ for Boat People

The Thai navy will deploy a landing-platform dock ship in the Andaman Sea to provide humanitarian assistance to migrants found adrift as a complement to air patrols by the United States.

Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha told reporters the 4.9-billion-baht (US$163 million) HTMS Ang Thong will serve as a “floating base with medics and police” on board. The vessel, commissioned in 2012, has a displacement of 7,500 tonnes, can carry a crew of 390 and is equipped with a sick bay, a minor-operation room and dentistry suite.

Myanmar Refugee First to Accept Cambodia Resettlement

Australian Immigration Minister Scott Morrison, front left, signs a document together
with Cambodian Interior Minister Sar Kheng, front right, during a ceremony for a controversial
deal to resettle refugees in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Sept. 26, 2014 (Source: Voice of America)

April 23 -- Cambodia said it is reviewing the case of the first refugee at the Nauru detention center to volunteer for a controversial Australian resettlement plan.

Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak Thursday told the VOA Khmer service the first refugee to agree to resettle in Cambodia is an ethnic Rohingya who had fled Myanmar hoping to resettle in Australia.

Three Rebel Groups Still Fighting in Myanmar Will Attend Summit to Discuss Peace

Myanmar soldiers patrol in Laukkai, the main city in the Kokang region of northern Myanmar Shan state, on February 16, 2015. (Source: AFP via RFA)

Three armed ethnic groups that the Myanmar government sought to exclude from a meeting early next month to discuss the draft of a nationwide cease-fire agreement will attend the summit despite ongoing clashes between their troops and the national army, group leaders who will participate in the meeting said. 

The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and the Arakan Army (AA) will join 12 other rebel groups for a May 1-3 summit at the United Wa State headquarters in Pangsang, northern Shan state, where they also will discuss the country’s current political situation.