For Myanmar nationals, ‘Friendship’ bridge is a lifeline

For Myanmar nationals, the Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge spanning the Moei river has offered a crucial link for more than two decades. Every day, people cross from Myanmar’s Myawaddy township into Thailand’s Mae Sot for work, school, trade and health care.

The bridge and its adjoining Asia Highway has been regularly impacted by the situation in Myanmar ever since it opened in 1997. When battles between the Myanmar military and the Karen National Liberation Army near the border, the bridge sometimes closes.

In January, the bridge reopened after three years of COVID-related closures only to temporarily close again months later amid fighting that has raged since the military government came to power in a 2021 coup.

One month earlier, border trade was halted once again. But in recent weeks, the conflict between the military and anti-junta forces has momentarily quieted at this border and Myanmar nationals have begun crossing again. 

Others are taking alternative routes into the country, crossing the Moei river, or Thaung Yin as it is known in Myanmar, at a point near the bridge. The number is likely to rise in coming weeks as men and women flee a new military conscription drive. One escapee told Radio Free Asia, a news service affiliated with BenarNews, that there was no desire to kill someone from the same ethnic group.

Thai authorities have been placing razor wires along the bank of the Moei to prevent such crossings – though desperate people are unlikely to be deterred by such efforts.

About 38 miles (60 km) south of Mae Sot, a much smaller bridge links the Myanmar village to a Thai village of the same name – Wa Le.

Today, those living in the Karen community are able to enjoy a relative level of calm. It’s a marked difference from 2022, when Myanmar fighter jets and soldiers bombarded the area, burning homes and sending thousands fleeing.