A waiver in the US’s tough anti-terrorist legislation will allow tens-of-thousands of Karen refugees in Thailand to become eligible for resettlement in the US in coming years, a senior US official said on Thursday.

“There will be no cap (for the Karens),” said Ellen Sauerbrey, US Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration.

There are an estimated 150,000 ethnic Karens living in temporary camps along the Thai-Myannar (Burmese) border, where they have sought refuge from military offensives by the Myanmar army to wipe out their five-decades old struggle for the autonomy of the Karen State.

Although the US State Department last year agreed to start accepting Karen refugees for resettlement, the programme was stalled by tough anti-terrorist legislation voted in in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Anti-terrorist legislation essentially bars refugees who have “provided material support” to a resistance group abroad from seeking resettlement in the US.

Sauberbrey has spent her first eight months in office trying to get around the legislation in order to allow the US’s resettlement programme to function.

“This issue has threatened to seriously derail our entire resettlement programme because, just by nature, many people who are refugees are people who have fled and perhaps given resistance to a government,” Sauberbrey told a press conference after visiting the Tham Hin refugee camp in Thailand’s Ratchaburi province which borders Myanmar.

The 9,500 Karens in Tham Hin were the first refugee population to benefit from a waiver to the Homeland Security Act stipulations pushed through by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last year.

“This last week, Secretary Rice expanded the provision to cover the other camps in Thailand that are majority Karen,” said Sauberbrey.

Many of the Karen refugees living in Thailand are either former members or related to members of the Karen National Union (KNU), a rebel group founded in 1948 that is dedicated to seeking the autonomy of the Karen State in eastern Myanmar through military means.

Having pushed through a waiver for the Karen refugees, many of whom profess to be Christians, Sauberbrey was hopeful; that similar waivers would be forthcoming for other ethnic minority groups fleeing Myanmar’s military regime.

“We began with the Karen. We’re working on a similar waiver for the Chin in Malaysia,” said Sauberbrey.

US Presdident George Bush has set a resettlement quota of 70,000 refugees to the US next year, compared with the 53,000 who were allowed entry in 2005.

Sauberbrey estimated that up to 15,000 to 20,000 of next year’s eligible refugees would come from Asia, with Karens accounting for up to half.