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The Department for International Development (DFID) closely monitors the humanitarian situation along Thailand's border with Burma, including in the town of Mae Sot. We are aware of the continuing needs of people displaced by long-term ethnic conflict in Burma's border areas. In response, DFID is contributing towards the provision of food, shelter, other necessities and improved access to legal assistance to nearly 150,000 Burmese refugees in camps in Thailand. DFID also supports clinics in and near Mae Sot which provide medical services to Burmese people; and gives aid for basic health care, food security, improved sanitation and grants to help with the cost of schooling, for internally displaced people inside eastern Burma. The total cost of this programme over three years from 2009-12 will be more than £8 million.When the Secretary of State for International Development, my right hon. Friend the Member for Sutton Coldfield (Mr Mitchell), visited Burma in November, he pressed President Thein Sein and senior Burmese Ministers to move urgently towards a resolution of the ethnic conflicts and for improved humanitarian access in border areas. |