Inside a small bamboo hut in a mountainous area of northwestern Thailand along the Myanmar border, Meh Ya works at her Singer sewing machine. The 47-year-old mother of three has lived and raised her children in this refugee camp outside of Mae Hong Son since 2001.
Sewing clothes for a living allows her to earn an income in a remote area where there’s no work opportunities. Facing a complete withdrawal of U.S. aid to the nine refugee camps along the Myanmar border on July 31, 107,000 refugees like her family in Thailand can no longer rely on food aid or healthcare in the camp she’s called home for the last 25 years.
“Now, life has become suffocating. I’m just afraid of going hungry or sick,” Mae Ya told DVB. She’s unable to return to her hometown of Moebye, across the border in Myanmar’s southern Shan State, due to the intensifying conflict between regime and resistance forces since the 2021 military coup.
Mae Ya is one of 9,681 people living in this small refugee camp. It is located 16 miles (26 km) north of Mae Hong Son town opposite Myanmar’s Mese Township in Karenni State. The 70 hectare camp was officially established in March 1996.
The Thai government administers the camp with support from international organizations, and Karenni civil society groups. An estimated 107,000 refugees in nine designated camps like this one, located along Thailand’s border with Myanmar.
After U.S. aid cuts came into effect, humanitarian aid provider The Border Consortium (TBC) halted its food rations to “standard households,” which make up 80 percent of the refugee camp population.
Only those deemed “vulnerable,” which is about 20 percent, including the elderly, disabled, or unaccompanied children, continue to receive limited food support.
“Funding is really a difficult endeavour. We are especially concerned about 2026,” Leon de Riedmatten, the TBC executive director, told DVB.
The International Rescue Committee (IRC), which provided healthcare to refugees in the camps, closed down nearly all of its primary services in January.
Other donors, including U.N. agencies, have scaled back but have not halted all support yet to refugees living in the camps.
Meh Ya, who has two working-age sons, is considered to be living in a “standard household” and lost her access to food rations on Aug. 1.
But she is now optimistic after Thailand announced a legal work policy for long-term refugees, like her and two of her three children, on Aug. 26. The Thai Ministry of Public Health also announced a 160 million baht ($4.4 million USD) budget to strengthen healthcare for refugees in the camps on Sept. 4.
This marks the first time Thailand has formally extended legal work rights and healthcare to refugees since the camps were established more than 40 years ago, a move widely seen as a turning point in refugee policy in Southeast Asia.
By granting the right to work, refugees are expected to gain greater self-reliance, reduce their vulnerability to exploitation, and contribute to the local economy.
“I heard about it [work permit] from my neighbors. It could be an opportunity for those who can work like myself,” Mae Ya told DVB.
Leon de Riedmatten said the decision by Thailand to allow long-term refugees to work was driven by several factors, including the suspension of refugee resettlement programs to the U.S., as well as the reduction of international donor support, and labor shortages in Thailand following the exodus of Cambodian workers due to the Thai-Cambodia border conflict.
“There is a hope that a new life can start if it’s not by going to a third country, at least where they are in Thailand, a new life can start. Because going back, it’s certainly not a solution in the prevailing circumstances in Myanmar,” he told DVB.
The first phase of Thailand’s new work permit policy is estimated to begin in October and will be available to 77,000 refugees registered with the Thai Ministry of the Interior, leaving another 30,000 unregistered people excluded until a later date.
“The process has to be voluntary, and we must monitor those who leave the camps. The ones not included at the early stage will be integrated in the second phase,” Leon de Riedmatten said.
Local civil society organizations supporting refugees from Myanmar in Thailand told DVB that while the new work permit policy is a welcome step, it may take considerable time before it becomes “truly effective” for refugees.
Refugees told DVB during a visit to one refugee camp in August that the majority of camp residents were already struggling to cope with reduced food and health support.
“Since Thailand’s policy is still very new, We don’t yet know what documentation or what procedures will be required or how long it is going to take to be really effective for the refugees,” said Maw Pray Myar, the president of the Karenni National Women’s Organization (KNWO).
The nine camps in Thailand are home to an estimated 107,000 long-term refugees from Myanmar, about 91,000 of them have been verified by the Thai authorities and the U.N., according to official figures.
The population in the camps has grown further since Myanmar’s 2021 military coup, as conflict has forced thousands more to flee into Thailand. A new exodus into Thailand has followed the enforcement of the military conscription law on Feb. 10, 2024, which stipulates all males aged 18 to 35 and females aged 18 to 27 must serve a minimum of two years in the military.
For the 107,000 refugees along the border, Thailand’s first move in more than four decades to grant legal work rights offers a glimmer of opportunity after years of confinement to the camps.
It may not end their struggles overnight, but for many it feels like the first ray of hope in a long bout of darkness.
“If I get the chance, I want to go to any third country. I just don’t want my children to be like me — locked up in the camp for years, not knowing what is happening in the world,” said Sae Mae, 39, a mother of three children and a teacher from Myanmar’s Karenni State who has lived in the camp since 2009.
