World
Trumps US Aid Freeze Closes Health Centres Serving Myanmar Refugees
Healthcare clinics supporting tens of thousands of refugees along the Thai-Myanmar border have been ordered to close after U.S. President Donald Trump halted most foreign aid last week. The decision has forced Thai authorities to move critically ill patients to other medical facilities.
According to a local official and two members of a refugee camp committee, the clinics, funded by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) with U.S. support, were told to shut down by Friday. The IRC did not respond to requests for comment.
Last week, Trump suspended development assistance from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) for 90 days to evaluate its alignment with his “America First” policy. This pause has caused widespread disruption in the global aid sector, which relies heavily on U.S. funding.
It remains unclear how many clinics in the nine camps housing about 100,000 refugees are affected or what role a State Department waiver for life-saving humanitarian aid, issued on Tuesday, will play during the 90-day freeze.
These clinics serve refugees fleeing violence in Myanmar. At Mae La camp in the Tha Song Yang district, Bweh Say, a member of the refugee committee and a local teacher, shared that patients have already been discharged.
Pregnant women and individuals needing oxygen support can no longer access the clinics’ equipment or medications. The camp’s water distribution and waste disposal services, supported by the IRC, have been disrupted.
Relatives of discharged patients are scrambling to find oxygen tanks for use at home, Bweh Say added. Around 50 patients were sent home, while some critically ill individuals, including a child recovering from heart surgery, remain in Mae La’s hospital. The teacher, who declined to be named due to lack of authorization to speak publicly, estimated the hospital used to see about 100 outpatients daily but now serves none.
Tak province governor Chucheep Pongchai told local media that the most critical cases would be transferred to state hospitals. He also mentioned efforts to request the use of IRC equipment.
Dr. Tawatchai Yingtaweesak, director of Tha Song Yang Hospital, said he was visiting the camp to assess patient needs. “We need to determine who can go home and who requires oxygen or other assistance,” he told Reuters by phone.
Nai Aue Mon, program director for the Human Rights Foundation of Mainland (HURFOM) in southern Myanmar, expressed concerns that basic medical needs in the camps might go unmet. “It’s terrifying because these refugees completely rely on this aid for their daily healthcare.”
The Myanmar Conflict
In late October 2023, a coalition of three ethnic armed groups in Myanmar’s Shan State launched a major offensive against the military junta, marking the strongest challenge to its authority since the February 2021 coup.
Since the coup, roughly 2.3 million people in Myanmar have been displaced internally, while 1.35 million have fled as refugees or sought asylum abroad. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), about 130,000 Myanmar refugees are currently in Thailand. This figure includes those who arrived before and after the coup.
The U.S. State Department estimates that 150,000 Myanmar refugees live in nine official camps in Thailand. However, this tally only counts individuals within the camps, while the number of Burmese nationals in Thailand is significantly higher.
