Thailand braces as refugees from Myanmar coup flee to border regions

MAE SOT (Reuters), 18 March, 2021  - Hundreds of people have fled Myanmar’s towns and cities since last month’s military coup and are sheltering in areas controlled by ethnic militias on the Thai border, an official from one of the groups said on Thursday, as Thailand prepared for a surge of refugees.

An official from the Karen National Union (KNU), which has been fighting the Myanmar army for decades, said almost a thousand people were sheltering inside KNU-controlled territory.

Myanmar’s security forces have killed at least 217 people in their crackdown against opposition to the coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a civil rights group in Myanmar.

“Hundreds of people are now in our area,” Padoh Saw Taw Nee, the KNU’s head of foreign affairs, said in an interview.