Saw Glads and his family belong to the Karen minority ethnic group. They arrived at Mae La "temporary shelter" (refugee camp) in Thailand fours years ago. They survived for a year in the burmese forest due to the displacement of their village, because of the continuing violation of human rights inflicted by the Thamataw (Burmese Army). Since then they're living in that space, where there is no time, no future, no hopes, the space in-between.They are in-between two countries that do not want them (Burma-Thailand), obliged to live off the charity of UNCHR behind barb-wire. They are part of the 150,000 forgotten refugees living today in the nine camps along the Thai-Burmese border.
I visited for the first time Saw Glad's home three years ago. Since then I have been back every year. In-between this time nothing has changed. Saw Glads life follows a terrible daily routine, he hopes there will be a better future for his daughters, for the moment they just wait as time passes by.
For 25 years, the Burmese junta has gradually invaded the border territories inhabited by ethnic minorities and displacing more than one million people from their homes. The residents of Mae La have been blocked for almost thirty years in this small corner of tropical forest in western Thailand, with no choice but to live with dignity inside the barbed wire fence of the camp under strict control of the Thai army.