Despite ceasefire agreements reached between Naypyitaw and Shan State Army (SSA) both North and South factions, which have brought unprecedented peace to most of Shan State, the stream of people traveling to Thailand to find work or to stay with their relatives who are already there is still unstoppable, according to sources on the border.
“The world may say peace has returned to Burma but what they don’t know is that our means of livelihood hasn’t,” said a new arrival from Shan State North.
The passage to Thailand, the Promised Land to most however, is costly. From Namzang in Shan State South to Pongpakhem, 16 km north of the Chiangmai border, a distance of 192 miles (307 km), the fare is 250,000 kyat ($ 312.5 or 9,375 baht) for each passenger, 14 years upward.
The reason for the exorbitant fare is the exorbitant tolls levied by the 7 main checkpoints on the road:
- Mongnai 12,000 kyat per head
- Langkher 40,000 kyat per head
- Mongpan 30,000 kyat per head
- Tahsang 20,000 kyat per head
- Mongton 35,000 kyat per head
- Nakawngmu 12,000 kyat per head
- Pongpakhem 20,000 kyat per head
- Total 169,000 kyat per head ($211.25)
“So what the transporter like myself gets out of each trip is less than 30,000 kyat ($ 37.5) per head,” said a driver who also owns a truck. “And that doesn’t include the cost of fuel.”
When it was pointed out that the same people going inside Thailand would still have to pay Thai checkpoints for passage, a migrant worker who was bringing his mother and younger sister replied, “Well, that’s to be expected, because we are traveling in their country illegally. But I don’t see any Thai citizens paying tolls there.”
He said President Thein Sein ought to start thinking what to do about the illegal toll collecting practice by state personnel.
