Surprisingly, there was not a special category at the Oscars for Documentaries on the Scam Centres along the Thai-Burma border. In a few months time we have seen countless reports on the developments just the proverbial stone’s throw away.
On 27 February there was an article in the Irrawaddy that spoke of the consequences of the decision by the US Government to freeze the funding of USAID programs. The Border Consortium (TBC) let it be known that within 4-6 weeks their funding to provide food to more than 100,000 refugees would be finished.
In the article they also said that it costs 1.3 million dollars per month to feed the population in the camps. That is 13 dollars per person per month. 450 baht per month. 15 baht per day…..
On the same day another article spoke of 8,700 people who were rescued in Myawaddy, May Htaw Talay, Shwe Ko Ko and KK Park. The cost of feeding them has been 10 million baht, or 295,000 US Dollars. That is 34 US Dollars per person for 10 days. Or 115 baht per day. And does that include the 2 truckloads of cigarettes they seem to have consumed?
A day later the figures were a little different. The cost per day is now 95,000 US Dollars, which is 11 US $ per day. This does seem to include the cost for guarding the rescued people. To feed a Chinese it cost 30,000 Kyat which equals to 14 US $. Does that mean the Chinese get different food than the others?
On 3 March there is an article about sending workers to Russia. Sending workers sound a bit like forcing people to go. With 500 and 1,300 US $ on offer, there might be a waiting list for people to go.
27 February, 2025 Repatriation Delays Spark Disease Risk, Escapes at Myanmar Scam Victim Camps
27 February 2025, Food Running Out for 100,000 Myanmar Refugees After US Aid Freeze
28 February 2025, Chinese Man Dies Awaiting Repatriation After Release From Myanmar Scam Center: BGF
3 March 2025, Myanmar to Send Workers to Russian Construction Sites
Earlier I wrote about the cost for raising a child in the USA and how the refugee camps have raised the US workforce for a fraction of those costs. A video I shared as well supported this by talking about the cost of birth in a US hospital. Perhaps the refugee camps should offer pregnancy care and birth arrangements for American Citizens who cannot afford the cost in their own country.
Numbers count, we often don’t.
European countries are also slashing their foreign aid. The Netherlands has announced it will lower Humanitarian aid from roughly 4.9 to 2.5 billion Euro.
The GDP of the Netherlands is 1.15 trillion Euros. Officially the country should spend 2% on defence, which is 23 billion Euros. And there is talk to increase the 2% to even 5%.
We are willing to spend more money to keep people away than to help them survive where they are.
In Mae Sot the volunteer group “15 Baht Meal” has been struggling to provide the meals for this price. Reluctantly they will increase the price for a meal, delivered at people’s doorstep, from 15 to 20 baht. Perhaps they can offer to help the struggling rescuers in Myawaddy who spend 475 to feed Chinese people.
Mae Sot, 4 March, 2025
The problem is that the lion's share of those US "AID" (not "aid"!) funds don't actually make it to helping people in need, but instead fund an archipelago of patronage orgs that feed back into US imperial power. So it's all grift and lies, actually. This is the same gov't that has committed a holocaust worth of killing of innocent middle-easterners over the past 20+ years - do you think they actually care about human life? Their actions say otherwise....