Myanmar refugees take shelter in Thailand's Mae Sot - BBC News

Mae Sot has become an uneasy refuge for Burmese on the run, akin to Cold War-era Berlin or Casablanca.

1 day agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, BBC/Jonathan HeadImage caption, Tens of thousands of Burmese have fled across the border to Thailand since 2021By Jonathan Headin Mae Sot, ThailandThe bamboo and leaf-thatch shelter in the middle of a sugarcane field hardly looks like a safehouse.

But that is where 23-year-old Sanjay - his choice of a pseudonym - and eight others have been hiding out since fleeing conscription across the border in war-torn Myanmar.

They are now fugitives in Mae Sot, on Thailand's western edge. They share their rudimentary home with a gaggle of ducks and chickens, and several goats.

"Back home I used to feel afraid every day that they would come to take me into the army," Sanjay says. "Even though we have very little food here - just rice and vegetables - no-one will come to harm me. I feel free here in Thailand."

A narrow, muddy river, no more than a stream in the dry season, is all that separates Myanmar from Thailand.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-68823500

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