{"id":13075,"date":"2025-02-12T11:38:05","date_gmt":"2025-02-12T11:38:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/12\/no-doctors-for-sick-children-this-is-the-reality-of-trumps-aid-freeze-in-remote-northern-thailand\/"},"modified":"2025-02-12T11:38:05","modified_gmt":"2025-02-12T11:38:05","slug":"no-doctors-for-sick-children-this-is-the-reality-of-trumps-aid-freeze-in-remote-northern-thailand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/12\/no-doctors-for-sick-children-this-is-the-reality-of-trumps-aid-freeze-in-remote-northern-thailand\/","title":{"rendered":"No doctors for sick children. This is the reality of Trump\u2019s aid freeze in remote northern Thailand"},"content":{"rendered":"
Plastic tubes meander from\u202fRosella\u2019s nose to a nearby oxygen tank that\u2019s bigger than she is, as she flicks through a book of her drawings: a flower, a house, a chicken. <\/p>\n
The 9-year-old needs non-stop medical attention for the bone condition she was born with that has left her ribs pushing dangerously on her lungs, one of which is not working as it should. <\/p>\n
Rosella and her mother are refugees living in one of nine remote camps dotted along Thailand\u2019s mountainous border with Myanmar. <\/p>\n
About 100,000 people live in the camps, having fled decades of fighting between the Myanmar military and ethnic minority rebel groups. The situation at the border has worsened in recent years by the junta\u2019s coup and ensuing civil war. <\/p>\n
Mae La is the biggest camp and its US-funded hospital is the only source of health care for more than 37,000 people living there \u2013\u202fmostly from the ethnic Karen minority. <\/p>\n
When the Trump administration ordered a 90-day freeze on almost all international aid, halting the US\u2019 entire global development network overnight, the camp hospital was forced to shut its doors, sending shock waves through the refugee community. <\/p>\n
Video posted by refugees on social media showed patients at the center being lifted from their hospital beds and carried out in hammocks covered in blankets. <\/p>\n
Rosella was moved to a nearby improvised health center, along with other patients with chronic conditions. But there are no longer any doctors to treat her. <\/p>\n
Numerous aid workers in northern Thailand described widespread panic and confusion following the sudden suspension of aid, especially among those whose work provides life-saving services to some of the world\u2019s most vulnerable and impoverished people on both sides of the border. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have never faced a problem like this before,\u201d said\u202fSaw Bweh Say, secretary of the Karen Refugee Committee, which represents refugees in the Thai camps. <\/p>\n
Anxiety over medicine and food<\/h2>\n
Refugees in the Thai border camps live a fragile and isolated existence. <\/p>\n
They cannot legally work and need a permit to even leave the camp. The Thai government considers the camps temporary settlements, but some communities have been there for generations. <\/p>\n
Basic services such as health care, education, sanitation, water and food are provided by international aid donors. In Mae La, and six other camps, those funds come almost entirely from the US \u2013 the world\u2019s largest aid donor \u2013 through the International Rescue Committee. <\/p>\n
Though the camp hospitals are more akin to field clinics, with tin roofs and intermittent power, they are the only source of health care for tens of thousands of people. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf it\u2019s an emergency, how can we face the situation? That burdens a lot of people here,\u201d said Ni Ni, 62, who has heart failure and kidney disease. <\/p>\n
For some, it\u2019s already too late. In nearby Umpiem camp, an elderly lady with breathing problems died after she could not access supplemental oxygen due to the hospital closure, an IRC spokesperson said. <\/p>\n