The Border Consortium: Burmese Refugee Camps Photo Essay (November 2025)
Karen kids at a school (The Border Consortium)
A Photo Essay: Life Inside Five Burmese Refugee Camps | TBC
Earlier this year I volunteered with the highly esteemed NGO ‘The Border Consortium’ (TBC), started by my friend and neighbour, Jack Dunford (MBE). Jack has been responsible for feeding and housing hundreds of thousands of Burmese refugees on the Thai/Burma border since the early ‘80s. TBC operations are based out of Mae Sot, Thailand, which I first visited as a backpacker in the 90s. I have done a lot of NGO photography, but this one was special as it was so close to home. I was recently interviewed about my experience on the border with The Border Consortium, as well as my 30+ years of working in Southeast Asia on The Insight Myanmar Podcast.
I documented five of the nine camps that stretch over a huge section of the Thai border, from Central to Northern Thailand. As it happened, the day I started was a couple of days after the world’s richest man had thrown USAID “into the wood chipper”. No ‘phasing out’, just medical services for tens of thousands of people shuttered overnight. Old folks unplugged from their oxygen, things like that.
TBC pioneered the philosophy of letting the people in the camps make the decisions. The Border Consortium gave technical assistance when needed, and raised money. For literally 50 cents a day they kept 100,000+ people in basic nutrition and cooking fuel. I could go on and on, but I won’t I’m just going to show some photos.
As a family/kids photographer the first thing I noticed were the kids. They had lives that looked like any town in rural Thailand, except they were trapped in there, with no prospects of finding employment when grown. (Don’t worry, there is a happy ending to this!)
Get that kid some boots!
Looks idylic, but it’s a difficult 4-hour drive from the nearest real town, and that’s in dry season. And they can’t leave the camp to find meaningful employment, but that is about to change.
Breakthrough: The Thai Government's New Work Policy
But this summer there was an incredible breakthrough. Amidst recent upheaval in the region, a piece of good news emerged last month: The Thai Government has approved a new policy allowing Burmese refugees to leave the border camps and work. The Border Consortium has worked tirelessly for years to make this happen. A huge congratulations to them for their success.
My experience photographing in five of these camps last February completely upended my preconceived notions. I'd always imagined refugee camps as places of passive waiting, where families lived in tents with no control over their lives. The reality was the opposite.
These camps were vibrant, self-governed communities that felt much like any other town in Southeast Asia; full of schools, markets, and an inspiring sense of positivity. The only catch was that no one was allowed to leave. But now, that is changing.
I remember a conversation with a young Karen woman, a member of the camp administration who, like many young people there, spoke excellent English. (In green shirt below.) When I asked if she had ever been to Chiang Mai, she said, “No, that would be like a dream.” Now, with a pressing need for unskilled labor across Thailand, she and countless others may finally get to pursue that dream and find meaningful work. It is an incredibly positive development in a year begun with such malice and hardship.
TBC press release on the change of policy. Major kudos to the Thai government for making this happen.
Photos of Daily Life in the Camps | The Border Consortium
If you are involved with a charity that needs to tell a positive story through photography, contact me to discuss. I have worked with the Asian Development Bank, Save the Children, CARE, USAID (RIP), Helen Keller International and more.
