Photo Essays | Society | Southeast Asia

In Photos: Life along Myanmar’s Border

Refugees scrounge out a life on both sides of the Moei River bordering Thailand.

A peak across the border. Razor wire separates Myanmar from Thailand at Mae Sot along the Moei River. Civil war has blighted the country for five years and left about 93,000 people dead. Aerial bombardments are also continuing. Recent strikes killed at least 27 people, including a one-month-old infant and injured 10 civilians.

The eyes have it. All sides in Myanmar’s civil war are waiting on a verdict in the International Court of Justice (ICJ), where senior generals are being prosecuted for the alleged 2017 genocide of the ethnic Rohingya. The military denies the allegations. The trial in the United Nations’ top court concluded on January 29 but a verdict could still be months away.

Burmese backyards. Huts line the border with Thailand, where hundreds of people from Myanmar have found sanctuary and make a living primarily by selling alcohol and cigarettes – much of it counterfeit – along with precious stones, teak, dried fish, rice, and bottled water.

As the dry season nears an end, and the Moei River falls to its lowest levels, fishermen dig into the riverbank hoping for a catch. Others scavenge for a livelihood, collecting plastics and anything else that can be recycled.

Caught in Myanmar, sold in Thailand. Fishermen deliver their daily catch to the market. Giant River Catfish – also known as the Bagarius catfish – Snakehead fish and species of Loaches and Barbs are a chief source of protein from the Moei River.

Children play hide and seek in the bushes. Not far from here an NGO, which remains nameless, runs a home for rescued child soldiers, some as young as 12. The children study English, Thai, and Burmese and learn life skills while undergoing psychiatric evaluations.

An evening kick. Each day, dozens of children meet on a dirt paddock where a game of football is played in the dust as the sun goes down, before being called home for dinner.

A vendor in Myanmar sells her wares to locals in Thailand. Given the security risks, foreigners are not allowed to cross the border but people in Myanmar do have restricted access along the Thai side of the frontier, which is lined with razor wire.

A child smiles for the camera, with approval from her mother. About 500,000 children are among the 3.6 million people who have been internally displaced since the 2021 coup tipped Myanmar into a civil war, according to the United Nations.

Dad sweeps the dust from outside the family home while his son plays with a hula-hoop. The U.N. says some 300,000 children are surviving in refugee camps where clean water, sanitation, and shelter are inadequate.

A sentry tower has stood since opposition rebels and the Karen National Union (KNU), one of 20-odd ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) at war with the junta, seized control of Myawaddy almost two years ago. Accusations of collusion between the EAOs and the running of nearby scam compounds persist but the KNU is working on a constitution and self-government.

Taking a break. As the evening sun sets, an elderly woman takes a nap in a hammock on the Myanmar side of the border with Thailand.

A Thai soldier patrols the Myanmar border. Relations between refugees and Thai authorities are complex and sometimes strained but by and large ties are convivial amid the realities of a civil war that has entered a stalemate, with the ruling junta holding absolute control over just 21 percent of the country.

Between the Thai-Myanmar border towns of Mae Sot and Myawaddy, hundreds of people have found refuge from a five-year civil war that will be remembered for its relentless bombings by the military junta and its air force.

According to the latest figures from the United Nations, about 3.6 million people have been displaced by the conflict, with a stalemate emerging, leaving the junta in absolute control of just over 21 percent of the country.

The opposition, made up of 20-odd ethnic armed organizations and the People’s Defense Force (PDF), holds around 42 percent, figures which have remained almost unchanged for the past year, according to Global Conflict Tracker.

“It’s the inability of the junta to retake its lost territory that is driving the bombing campaign,” a PDF source, who declined to be named, told The Diplomat. “They want to bomb the entire country into submission. Thousands have died and millions are displaced.”

She said hopes that the United States-Israel war against Iran would bring an end to Iranian supplies of aviation gasoline used by the military’s air force were fading after the latest attacks along the southern Myawaddy corridor near the Thailand–Myanmar border.

Security along the frontier has tightened since Thailand launched a cross-border crackdown on crime syndicates and their scam compounds in February last year, as The Diplomat’s Luke Hunt discovered when he recently returned to the region on assignment.

Civilians are allowed to cross the border into Mae Sot, where they enjoy restricted access, but foreigners are stopped from entering Myawaddy at the Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge. Hunt took these photos of life inside Myanmar from the edge of its border with Thailand.

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Between the Thai-Myanmar border towns of Mae Sot and Myawaddy, hundreds of people have found refuge from a five-year civil war that will be remembered for its relentless bombings by the military junta and its air force.

According to the latest figures from the United Nations, about 3.6 million people have been displaced by the conflict, with a stalemate emerging, leaving the junta in absolute control of just over 21 percent of the country.

The opposition, made up of 20-odd ethnic armed organizations and the People’s Defense Force (PDF), holds around 42 percent, figures which have remained almost unchanged for the past year, according to Global Conflict Tracker.

“It’s the inability of the junta to retake its lost territory that is driving the bombing campaign,” a PDF source, who declined to be named, told The Diplomat. “They want to bomb the entire country into submission. Thousands have died and millions are displaced.”

She said hopes that the United States-Israel war against Iran would bring an end to Iranian supplies of aviation gasoline used by the military’s air force were fading after the latest attacks along the southern Myawaddy corridor near the Thailand–Myanmar border.

Security along the frontier has tightened since Thailand launched a cross-border crackdown on crime syndicates and their scam compounds in February last year, as The Diplomat’s Luke Hunt discovered when he recently returned to the region on assignment.

Civilians are allowed to cross the border into Mae Sot, where they enjoy restricted access, but foreigners are stopped from entering Myawaddy at the Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge. Hunt took these photos of life inside Myanmar from the edge of its border with Thailand.

Luke Hunt is a Southeast Asia correspondent for The Diplomat. He has spent three decades working in the region and produces the Beyond the Mekong podcast. He can be followed on Patreon and X – formerly Twitter.

Thailand-Myanmar border

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