Hundreds of thousands of people who fled their homes in conflict-torn Myanmar are facing growing hardship following US aid cuts as they continue to live in camps across the Thailand border.
“More than 108,000 people are now struggling to access staple food supplies,” Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported on May 7, quoting civil society organizations.
US President Donald Trump on Jan. 20 ordered the suspension of funding to the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which has hit the Myanmar refugees hard, the report said.
The predominantly ethnic Karen from eastern Myanmar’s Kayin state, facing oppression from the military junta in the form of brutal village burnings and air strikes, have fled en masse to camps in Thailand.
RFA reported that after living under refugee status for years without access to jobs or legal documents, they were helped by USAID for essential services, including healthcare, food distribution, and sanitation.
The US had been the largest donor, contributing about 69 percent of the camps’ funding as of early 2025, channeled through NGOs like the International Rescue Committee and The Border Consortium, said the Organization for World Peace.
“There has been a steadily declining international support for the displaced Karen,” according to a statement co-published by 20 Karen groups on May 7.
They noted that food provisions were already below the minimum required for survival even before these drastic aid reductions.
“Children five years old and under have had their food budget slashed to just five US cents per day, while those over five will receive eight cents a day in allocated food,” the statement added.
Karen Peace Support Network spokesperson Cherry was quoted by RFA as saying that with aid donations failing to arrive, “the refugees’ situation will become worse than before.”
“They have no permission to come and go from the camp without identification, passport, or Thai citizenship documents; they have a lot of difficulty in searching for jobs,” Cherry, who only gave one name, said
The groups called for reversing long-term aid cuts for Myanmar residents in Thailand and for existing donors to increase their funding.
They further urged Bangkok to grant them the right to work and for the country to lift restrictions on cross-border aid delivery to areas not controlled by the Myanmar military.
The groups said that aid cuts are also affecting over one million people in Kayin state and neighboring areas.
“Alarms about the potential rise in HIV, tuberculosis, malaria and vaccine-preventable diseases is also worrying,” as per the statement.
The groups said the military junta that seized power in a 2021 coup continues to target homes, schools, plantations, religious sites, and medical centers with airstrikes and artillery.
Despite a ceasefire extended to May 31, airstrikes have continued, killing over 200 people and displacing tens of thousands.
The ceasefire was declared following the March 28 earthquake that claimed the lives of over 3,700 people in Myanmar.
The predominantly Christian Karen state has seen more than 60 years of conflict between the military and the KNU, which has left over 100,000 refugees, mostly ethnic Karen, in camps along the Thai border.
The Karen, also known as Kayin, account for about 5 million of Myanmar’s 54 million people and are the third largest ethnic group after the Bamar and Shan.
Most Karen are Theravada Buddhists, while around 15 percent are Christians. When Christian missionaries arrived in the 19th century, many Karen were animists.
