Of those aid groups based in Thailand, DFID provides £1.8 million (over three years—2005-06, 2006-07 and 2007-08) to the Thailand-Burma Border Consortium for the provision of food, shelter, cooking fuel and non-food items for the 166,000 refugees in the nine camps on the Thai-Burma border, and for their support to internally displaced people, particularly those in hiding in areas of ongoing conflict. We provide an approximately equivalent amount of funding to the Thailand-Burma Border Consortium's refugee work through our contributions to aid provided by the European Union.
DFID acknowledges the importance and value of cross-border aid, especially in supporting many of the 100,000 internally displaced people living in conflict areas in eastern Burma. We also acknowledge the value and importance of work by community based groups inside the country, who are able to reach many of the 400,000 internally displaced people living in Government controlled areas, mixed administration areas (where both ethnic armed groups and the Burmese army are present) and cease-fire areas. We believe strongly that the two mechanisms should be seen as complementary to each other—not as competitors.
We have removed the restriction on the use of UK funds provided to Thailand-based non-Governmental organisations for cross-border assistance. But while several Governments already fund cross-border work, the UK is the only bilateral donor currently supporting community-based groups reaching internally displaced people from inside Burma. Our judgment is that the best use for our additional money is to support community based organisations working inside Burma, which is why we also provide assistance to internally displaced people through community-based groups inside Burma (£400,000 in 2007-08) to provide emergency relief, health and education programmes in eastern Burma.