The bamboo and leaf-thatch shelter in the middle of a sugarcane field hardly looks like a safehouse.

But that is where 23-year-old Sanjay – his choice of a pseudonym – and eight others have been hiding out since fleeing conscription across the border in war-torn Myanmar.

They are now fugitives in Mae Sot, on Thailand’s western edge. They share their rudimentary home with a gaggle of ducks and chickens, and several goats.

“Back home I used to feel afraid every day that they would come to take me into the army,” Sanjay says. “Even though we have very little food here – just rice and vegetables – no-one will come to harm me. I feel free here in Thailand.”

A narrow, muddy river, no more than a stream in the dry season, is all that separates Myanmar from Thailand.

Across it, tens of thousands have fled since the 2021 military coup, seeking safety in the Thai border town of Mae Sot. The most recent arrivals are young men avoiding the national conscription which has been imposed by Myanmar’s military rulers since February – it applies to all men between the ages of 18 and 35. With most of the younger generation strongly opposed to military rule, the law has triggered an exodus of young men.

Over the years Mae Sot has become an uneasy refuge for Burmese on the run. It has the feel of Cold War Berlin about it, or of Casablanca in the famous eponymous movie. It is a town full of exiles, planning revolution, waiting for asylum offers, always fearful of spies and informers, and living in a state of almost constant anxiety.

“I used to be a bad boy,” Sanjay says. “I did whatever I liked. I never listened to my mother. I was not interested in politics.”

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