SocialDocumentary.net | Jennifer Roberts | Life Along the Border

Photographer: Jennifer Roberts

Title: Life Along the Border

Location: Thailand

Thumbnails & Caption
Exhibit Abstract

Thumbnails & Caption
Exhibit Abstract

Thumbnails & Caption
Exhibit Abstract

Two members of Royal Thai Army follow a public bus in Northern Thailand. Official refugees from Myanmar are not permitted to leave their camps, while other migrant workers and those without official status are not permitted to leave their villages. The Thai military frequently pull over public buses and set up check-points.

Fleeing their government’s widespread use of forced labor, forced military service, arbitrary detention, torture and killing, groups of people from Myanmar are left both internally displaced and in neighbouring Thailand.

The nine official UNHCR refugee camps in Thailand are home to roughly 92,000 registered refugees from Myanmar. An estimated 54,000 additional unregistered asylum seekers live both in the camps and in surrounding villages.

The refugee camps began opening in the 1980s, making the refugee situation in Thailand one of the longest running of it's kind in the world. Most official refugees are not warranted to leave their camps, while others are permitted little or no mobility from their villages. Despite their difficult situation, thousands of displaced individuals from Myanmar quietly prevail, resolutely going about their daily lives.

Photographer's Statement
Affiliated NGOs
Contact Photographer
Exhibit Stats
Tags

Image 1 of 22

Image Size

Picture Duration:(sec)

I first became interested the Thailand-Myanmar border conflict and refugee situation while I was a university student, volunteering at the Baan Unrak Children’s Village in Sangkhlaburi, Thailand. I taught an English class to both a group of mothers and a group of teenage boys from Myanmar. They lived and studied at the orphanage, in exchange for doing cooking and maintenance work.
Many years later as a professional photographer I returned to Thailand and this time volunteered at the Ban Nai Soi Community Centre, a school and home for youth refugees from Myanmar. In addition to teaching, I was able to travel home with many of the students, visiting their families in neighbouring communities and camps in rural areas of Northern Thailand. I then independently travelled along the Thai-Myanmar border visiting villages, schools, hospitals and orphanages.

I can't speak for any individual or claim to have a comprehensive understanding of their life exeriences but for me it was inspirational to repeatedly meet people living their lives with hope and joy, despite their difficult situations.

To license this work for editorial, creative, or other uses, click on the OZMO logo above.

This will take you to the Ozmo website where you can review the cost and license for the photographs in this exhibit.

You will need to create an account with both Amazon payments and with the Ozmo website as described on the Ozmo website.