Internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Dawnoeku displacement camp on the border between Thailand and Karenni (Kayah) State are facing various difficulties due to a lack of permanent shelter, according to people helping the displaced.
“They have built some makeshift shelters on the Thai side of the border, near Dawnoeku village. But when the Thai soldiers found out about it, they ordered the IDPs to dismantle the shelters. They are not allowed to do this at all. They can only stay under the banyan trees if they want to. Otherwise they have to stay in Dawnoeku,” said one of the people helping them.
He added that the Thai authorities do not allow the refugees from Dawnoeku who flee to the Thai side to stay anywhere outside the designated areas.
“According to their policy, they are allowed to stay for two months at most. But when the situation calms down, they have to go back. But if the situation there is still bad, they will be taken in. Only under the banyan trees. From the trees, they have nowhere else to go,” he said.
A refugee woman currently living in Karenni Refugee Camp No. 1 with a health certificate after spending about three months in the emergency shelter set up by Thai authorities spoke about the current situation of internally displaced people from Dawnoeku camp:
“They say they are still go and sleep outside the village. The Thai soldiers have ordered them not to stay here. If they don’t want to go back to their village and stay there, they have to come back and stay here temporarily under the trees.”
Although the Dawnoeku IDPs want to stay close to their camp and not too far away, the Thai authorities only allow them to stay under the banyan trees in the area currently permitted. The IDPs say that the designated area, which is the old camp site far away from Don Kuay, is inconvenient for them.
They fear that their belongings, which they left behind in the current camp, might be stolen or lost if they stay in the old camp site or in a place far away.
Therefore, some refugees have set up temporary shelters on the Thai side near the Dawnoeku IDP camp and the Thai authorities have asked them to move to the designated area, according to reports.
Apart from the shelter problems, people helping the IDPs have reported that food supplies for the Dawnoeku IDPs have also dwindled and are running out.
After the 2021 coup, fighting across Karenni State forced about 5,000 people from the state to flee to various safe places, reaching the Thai-Karen border. The place where they have found shelter on the Karenni side is Dawnoeku IDP Camp.
Myanmar Army troops have repeatedly fired at the civilians seeking refuge there with airplanes and heavy weapons, causing even more people to flee from the Karenni side of Myanmar to the Thai side.
Currently, about 800 people from Dawnoeku are staying under the banyan trees in the designated area on the Thai side near the Karenni Refugee Camp No. 1.
Sent by NMG.
