Thousands fleeing mounting violence after a military takeover in Myanmar last February, are trapped in limbo between a country that does not want them and a country whose military could kill them.

Many left their village in Myanmar, for neighbouring Thailand in search of a safe haven. The Associated Press reports that the refugees are not taken in by Thai authorities, who are wary of jeopardizing their relationship with Myanmar’s ruling military.

Though international refugee laws forbid the return of people to countries where their lives may be in danger, Thailand has nonetheless sent thousands of people who fled escalating violence by Myanmar’s military back home, according to interviews with refugees, aid groups and Thai authorities themselves.

This has forced Myanmar refugees to go back and forth between banks of a river on either side as the fighting in their home villages rages and briefly recedes.

Since its takeover last year, Myanmar’s military has killed more than 1,700 people, arrested more than 13,000 and systematically tortured children, women and men.

Thailand, which is not a signatory to the United Nations Refugee Convention, insists Myanmar’s refugees return to their embattled homeland voluntarily. Thailand also insists it has complied with all international non-refoulement laws, which dictate that people must not be returned to a country where they would face torture, punishment or harm.

More than half a million people have been displaced inside Myanmar and 48,000 have fled to neighboring countries since the military’s takeover, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. The UNHCR says Thai government sources estimate around 17,000 Myanmar refugees have sought safety in Thailand since the takeover. But only around 2,000 are currently living on the Thai side of the border, according to the Thai-Myanmar Border Command Center.

A 23-year-old Win and his family, reported AP, initially pitched their tent on the Thai side of the river, Thai authorities sent them back. The chemistry student now regularly crosses the river through chest-deep water to retrieve food, clothes and other donated items from the Thai side. Then he turns around and wades back to his campsite in Myanmar, where he lives alongside around 300 other refugees, including children and the elderly.

“I just want to go home,” he says. “I do not want anything else.”
-Sourced from AP