PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The latest newcomers to begin settling in Maine’s largest city are Kayah refugees from a mountainous state in Myanmar.
The Portland Press Herald says a 12-member family from Kayah is among the newest refugees to call Maine home, and Catholic Charities Maine says an additional 16 refugees are expected in the next month or two.
Kayah is a mountainous state of about 200,000 people on Myanmar’s eastern border with Thailand.
Its people have been struggling for independence since the 1950s.
The Kayah people have become part of a recent increase in refugees coming to Maine, including people from Somalia, Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. ♦