By Shoon Naing
(Reuters) – A Burmese refugee with lung problems died after she was discharged from a U.S.-funded hospital on the Myanmar-Thai border that was ordered to close as a result of U.S. President Donald Trump’s freeze on foreign aid, her family said.
Pe Kha Lau, 71, died on Sunday after becoming short of breath four days after she was sent home from a healthcare facility funded by the U.S. through the International Rescue Committee.
The IRC closed and locked hospitals in several refugee camps in late January after receiving a “stop-work” order from the U.S. State Department, according to residents and aid workers.
An IRC spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The U.S embassy in Bangkok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On orders from Trump the U.S., the world’s largest humanitarian donor, stopped almost all aid work and has began to dismantle its main mechanism for delivery, the United States Agency for International Development.
The spending freeze Trump ordered upon taking office January 20 is supposed to last 90 days while his administration reviews all foreign-aid programmes. Trump and Elon Musk, who is heading his drive to shrink the federal government, have said the move is necessary to root out wasteful spending.
The IRC facilities served tens of thousands of refugees living in mountainside camps on the Thai border who are unable to go back to Myanmar. The country has been in chaos since 2021, when the military seized power from an elected government, and ensuing conflict has killed thousands of civilians and displaced more than 3.5 million, according to the United Nations.
Pe Kha Lau had been hospitalised for three years and dependent on a supply of oxygen, according to her family.
When she fell ill at home on Saturday night she asked to go back to the hospital, her daughter Yin Yin Aye, 50, told Reuters through tears.
“I had to tell her that there is no hospital,” she said by phone.
An IRC spokesperson previously told Reuters that members of the refugee community had “self-organised” to ensure critical services for their communities while aid support was being “transitioned” to Thai authorities.
‘VERY POOR PEOPLE’
Before the hospital closed, Pe Kha Lau’s son-in-law, Tin Win, said “whenever she got short of breath, I would carry her right away back to hospital and she would be fine”.
“We are very poor people,” he said. “I work as a day laborer. We can’t afford oxygen at home,” he said.
He said several other refugees had died as a result of the hospitals closing. Reuters was not able to confirm his account.
A local Thai health official who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue said that when the hospitals were closed, oxygen tanks were distributed to some patients but there were not enough.
The IRC facilities were the primary source of medical care in Umpiem camp, a remote hillside area.
With the IRC facilities abruptly shut, midwives moved laboring women to a former school, where an 18-year-old refugee gave birth on February 1 amid insufficient facilities, a relative and a schoolteacher said.
The loss of U.S. foreign aid has left Thai officials and refugee groups scrambling to fill the gap, while state-run hospitals provide care for the refugees.
Aid efforts across the globe have been crippled by the Trump administration’s freeze, including the intricate system that helps prevent and respond to famine, according to humanitarian organisations.
(Writing by Poppy McPherson. Additional reporting by Panu Wongcha-um; Editing by Michael Perry)
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