Burmese Army Closes Three Pagodas Pass Border Crossing

Kaowao
November 7, 2009
Sangkhlaburi – The Burmese Army has closed Three Pagodas Pass border and barred local people from walking across the border to work on Thai soil.

“The closure of the border started this morning. The commander of the Burmese Army Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) No. 283 ordered the closure. This will definitely cost both sides several million baht in revenue,” said Nai Soe Mon, a businessman from the border town.

About three thousand people from Three Pagodas Pass town inside Burma cross the border every day to work in the shoe and sewing industries in Thailand. Business at the border is booming due to cheap labor; workers earn about 70 to 200 Baht per day. Seventy-five percent of these day workers are women.

The local community complained that the shoe, sewing and furniture industries on both sides would suffer from the border closure. The closure affects the many people working in the industries located around Three Pagodas Pass who rely on this main source of income in the border town.

Restrictions on trade and frequent border closures limit border trade on the Three Pagodas Pass border. When the Thai government banned furniture from Burma in 2005, the Burmese Army prevented all Thai goods from being exported across the border. The main check point gate has closed since then but local authorities allow people to walk from other exits unofficially.