Myanmar’s ethnic Karen face food shortages amid aid cuts to camps on Thai border

Myanmar residents forced to flee their homes for camps across the border in Thailand are facing growing hardship amid cuts to international aid, with more than 108,000 people now struggling to access stable food supplies, civil society organizations told Radio Free Asia on Wednesday.

Predominantly ethnic Karen from eastern Myanmar’s Kayin state, facing brutal village burnings and airstrikes by the junta, have fled en masse to camps in Thailand, where many have lived for years seeking refugee status with no access to jobs or legal documents.

The difficult life of residents in the camps escalated when the U.S. government slashed the budget of the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID.