MAE HONG SON: The northern border province got a touch of Hollywood when actress Angelina Jolie visited Ban Mai Nai Soi camp for World Refugee Day.
The special envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees used the visit to highlight the plight of some of the world's most vulnerable people.
"Preventing armed conflict should be a collective responsibility of the international community," the UN agency quoted her as saying at the camp.
"This staggering surge in refugee numbers shows that the world is failing to meet that responsibility. This is an unjust and unsustainable situation.
"The only answer is to devote greater efforts and resources to addressing conflict worldwide — there are no humanitarian solutions to political problems," added Jolie, who spent two hours at the site.
Ban Mai Nai Soi shelters 11,890 refugees of the Karenni ethnic group who fled fighting in Myanmar. The northern province has another camp at Ban Mae Surin in Khun Yuam district, which houses another 3,114 people, mainly Karen.
The Thai government calls them "displaced persons" as it does not recognise them as refugees.
Her message was delivered on World Refugee Day on Friday when about 1,500 refugees and officials joined the event at the camp.
The trip schedule in Thailand of the star of Maleficent, which is screening in Thai cinemas now, was kept secret. A source at Muang Mae Hong Song district office said officials and staff involved with the refugee camp were informed only when she arrived at the camp.
Jolie could not fly into the province from Chiang Mai by her private jet due to bad weather and had to take a road trip before returning to Chiang Mai on a chartered flight.
She left the northern city by her private jet to an unknown location on Friday night.