Mae Sot
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แม่สอด Mae Sot |
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| Coordinates | 16 ° 43 ' N , 98 ° 34' E | ||
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| Country | Thailand | ||
| Tak | |||
| ISO 3166-2 | TH-63 | ||
| Residents | 31,058 | ||
 Thai border post to Myawaddy
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Mae Sot ( Thai : แม่สอด ) is a city in Tak Province in the west of the northern region of Thailand . It is on the border with Myanmar . At the same time, Mae Sot is the capital of the district ( Amphoe ) Mae Sot .
Mae Sot has 31,058 officially registered residents (as of 2012). In 2011 the city was given the administrative status of a "big city" ( Thesaban Nakhon ) . This was only possible because the State Council decided that the requirement of at least 50,000 residents applies to all residents and not just officially registered citizens (Thai citizens). Numerous migrants and refugees from neighboring Myanmar live in Mae Sot.
geography
Mae Sot is located on the border with Myanmar about 80 kilometers west of the provincial capital Tak on the Maenam Maenam Moei (Moei River). The influence of Myanmar can be clearly felt: the population is made up of Bamar , Chinese , Karen , Shan and Thai . The city lies in the middle of a wooded mountain landscape on a plain and is surrounded by rice and cotton fields. A bridge over the Maenam Moei to Burma existed until the early 1980s, but it was destroyed in the course of the fighting. In the meantime the Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge has been rebuilt. It is open regularly and allows small border traffic to the closest Burmese town of Myawaddy during the day . Tourists often use the border crossing to extend their visa (so-called visa run ).
economy
Above all, trade with Myanmar contributes to Mae Sot's economic performance; it serves in part as a supply point for the Karen resistance movement in the Burmese border region. Due to the poor economic situation in Myanmar, there is mainly barter : basketry, woodwork, jade for food, motorcycles and electronics.
traffic
Road traffic
The city is located on one of the major highways:
Rail transport
There is no train station.
Air traffic
- Mae Sot Airport ( IATA airport code : MAQ).
history
As early as the 13th century, local principalities were formed on what is now Thailand, including in the area around Mae Sot. In 1278 the ruler attacked the nearby Sukhothai with a vastly superior army. In 1321 Tak fell to the new dominion center Lan Na in the north. In the middle of the 19th century it was Burmese traders who made the small market town rise. They came here from the west via the Moei River, including Shan from northern Myanmar.
Due to its exposed location, Mae Sot has repeatedly been the bone of contention between the Khmer , Burmese and Thai. Even today there was fighting on the border, which was brought into Thailand with the Karen rebels in Burma.
Migration, Refugees and Human Trafficking
A significant number of refugees and economic migrants from Myanmar live in the city. The exact number of the Myanmar population in Mae Sot is unclear, but estimates say it is over 120,000 people. 106,000 people are officially recorded. In the last few years, programs by non-governmental organizations and international aid organizations have increased.
One of the most important organizations is the Mae Tao Clinic in Mae Sot's suburb of Mae Tao . The hospital was founded by Cynthia Maung to provide free medical care to the people who are not being treated at the local Mae Sot hospital. More than a hundred employees work in the clinic, which is financed purely from donations.
The Mae Sot region has around 70 migrant schools that spontaneously began to meet the needs of the 30,000 children who have crossed the border with their parents. These students are a mix of refugees and economic migrants. There are currently only 7,000 students attending these schools. The schools range in size from 20 to over 650 students, for example the HSA Thoo Lei School . These schools do not receive any support from the Thai government and are maintained solely through ingenuity and international donations.
Mae Sot is a transit point for illegal immigrants and victims of human trafficking . Some of them are exploited in factories directly in Mae Sot, others are taken to central and southern Thailand to be exploited in fishing, factories, agriculture, on construction sites, in the sex trade, as domestic workers or beggars. According to a study by the International Labor Organization (ILO) in 2006, there were also numerous cases of child labor in Mae Sot . The migrant children mostly worked in textile factories. Most of them had to work 11 to 12 hours a day, seven days a week and were paid an average of 300 to 500 baht ($ 7.50 to $ 12.50) a week, less than a third of what an "ordinary" “Workers in Tak Province would get.
Attractions
- Wat Chumphon Khiri (Thai: วัด ชุมพล คี ร ) - beautifully designed chedi, located north of the market square
- Rim Moei Market (Thai: ตลาด ริม เมย , Talat Rim Moei ) - worth seeing because of the originality of the barter trade that the various population groups carry through in their picturesque costumes.
- Nature experience - excursions into the picturesque mountain landscape and to waterfalls, for example to the Pha Charoen waterfall in the south
- Wat Thai Watthanaram - five kilometers outside of Mae Sot with a huge reclining Buddha
- Nurul Mosque - small mosque for the Muslim minority
Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge
Friendship Bridge on the Moei River
Moei river
Temple in Mae Sot
Chedi of Wat Chumphon Khiri in Mae Sot
Street scene at the Rim Moei market
Rim Moei Market
Individual evidence
- ↑ Department of Provincial Administration : As of 2012 (in Thai)
- ↑ Decision of the State Council on the interpretation of the population according to Article 11 of the Thesaban Act of 1953 ( Memento of the original of November 16, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge. Archived from the original on November 12, 2013 ; accessed on November 28, 2015 .
- ↑ Mirror report: The Garbage Children of Mae Sot
- ↑ Spiegel report: Thousands flee from fighting between the military and rebels
- ↑ Mae Tao Clinic
- ↑ Thailand Human Trafficking Datasheet. In: Mekong Region Country Datasheets Human Trafficking. Strategic Information Response Network, UNIAP, p. 24.
- ↑ UNIAP Myanmar ( Memento of the original from September 6, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , United Nations Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking.
- ^ Philip S. Robertson Jr .: Working Day and Night. The Plight of Migrant Child Workers in Mae Sot, Thailand. ( Memento of the original from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor, International Labor Organization, 2006.
literature
- Phil Thornton: Restless Souls. Rebels, Refugees, Medics and Misfits on the Thai-Burma Border. Asia Books, Bangkok 2006, ISBN 974-8303-91-8 (with background information on Mae Sot).