Mae Sot - แม สอด

Publié le 20 février 2008 par Gaelle, Aisyah, Socheata... what else ?

Mae Sot is one of the most known border town in Thailand. It's about 90km west of Tak and enables people to go to Burma, through the "Friendship Brigde" (yeah, sure... what else ?), right into the town of Myawaddy. Further west lies Rangoon.

It takes about 5.30 hours to go there from Chiang Mai, 250 baths. Not so many Westerners around here, you have to know why you come, most of the time. Most of them are voluntaries teaching English or helping in the camps.

The closest camp to Mae Sot, and which is often "related" to it, is Mae La Camp. Around 50,000 people live there. 30,000 of them are children... I couldn't go there, because it's too far way from Mae Sot (90km) to go on a day-trip... alone. Yop, I didn't feel so much confident in going alone, and I take care of myself so... :)

In Mae Sot, the people are not Shan but Karen. One thing I learnt is the Burmese get the "refugee" title only when they escaped from real fighting. If you left Burma "only" because your family was threatened by the soldiers, or because your village was burnt to the ground by the army, it's not enough to get the right to be a refugee. They will thus be considered as having entered Thailand illegally.

In the soi to go to my GH, I stopped dead the first time. And tears threatened to come. It's at the far end of the lane, not far away from the police station. Crowded into a cage of 20m upon 5, you could see about 40 people, sitting and talking quietly.

At the end of the soi, on the left, behind the orange railings...

Young Thai or legal Karen watch over the wall, looking at the prisonners. I didn't dare to go closer to take my picture. They are in a cage, they don't need my help to feel like an animal in a Zoo...

Especially men, who came to look for a job. But also some women and children. A door leads to the rest room I guess. No beds, no blankets, hardly any mat at all.

Copyright "Restless Souls", Phil Thornton
No, it's not my picture. But it was exactly what I saw. Well... in color and many more people sitting inside. The cage was full when i was there. Some families and friends are allowed next to the cage 3 times a day, for one hour.

Guards with guns walk around aimlessly. At night, a shirt-less man, wearing a longyi (the burmese sarong) was hitting at the bars with a thick wood stick. Guess the prisonners were complaining...

After a while, they get deported. To where... I don't know. I tried to follow one of the trucks (see the pic below) for some time, but I lost it after a check-point. It wa heading north, in the country-side. I guess if they wanted to make them go back to Burma, they would have just put them on the Friendship Bridge. So maybe they were driving them to Mae La camp ? I would have to ask someone next time...