A gentle rain is falling as I visit Nuh Bo, a small Buddhist temple compound in Thailand where 2,000 people have taken shelter after fleeing the latest outbreak of violence inside Myanmar, also known as Burma. Their makeshift camp, surrounded by soaring limestone cliffs covered in dense foliage, lies on the Thai side of the muddy, fast-flowing Moei River that marks the border.

The people here, members of the Karen ethnic group, arrived in June after the Burmese army and a pro-government militia, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), attacked forces of the rebel Karen National Union, which has been fighting for autonomy for more than half a century. Over 4,000 Karen civilians were forced to flee across the border in what is believed to be one of the largest movements of refugees across the Thailand-Myanmar border in a decade.

"This is the second time we have been forced to flee our homes in less than a year," says one refugee, Pa Htoo Kyi, as we walk along Nuh Bo's muddy pathways to his shelter made from bamboo and plastic sheeting donated by the United Nations.

Pa Htoo Kyi tells me that his wife and two children were forced to flee for the first time when fighting erupted near their home village last October. After walking through the bush for two days, Pa Htoo Kyi and his family reached Ler Per Her, a camp for displaced people inside Myanmar.

At the beginning of June, the Burmese army and its DKBA allies attacked Ler Per Her, raining shells on Karen National Union-held areas around the camp.

"Mortars landed very close to our hut," Pa Htoo Kyi says. "When we fled, one man from our village died when he stepped on a landmine. His wife was badly injured."

Pa Htoo Kyi's family escaped over the border into Nuh Bo in Thailand's Tak Province.

"Each time we fled we lost everything we had - our house, crops and animals," Pa Htoo Kyi says, gesturing at the hut's two empty rooms. "All we own is some plastic buckets, plates and cutlery given to us by aid groups."

At Nuh Bo's makeshift clinic - which is supported by the International Rescue Committee and other aid organisations - patients are treated for malaria, diarrhoea and respiratory infections, all common ailments during the rainy season. The medics tell me that children are especially vulnerable to malaria because they haven't acquired sufficient immunity to fight off the parasite.

"We see cases of malaria in children every day and it is very important that we detect it in time," says Naw Mu Dah, a nurse, as she pricks a small boy's finger, drawing blood to test for the disease.

To cope with the many patients at Nuh Bo, the IRC is planning to build and equip a new health post staffed by refugee health workers. The post will also help treat patients from nearby communities.

An hour's drive away, in the town of Mae Sot, I meet Dr. Cynthia Maung, who runs the Mae Tao clinic, which provides free treatment for Burmese migrant workers. She says that while the latest influx of refugees is especially large, people in eastern Myanmar are constantly being uprooted. She cites reports by the Backpack Health Workers Team, an organisation that provides basic medical services inside Myanmar.

"The backpack teams tell me that as much as 30 percent of the people in the areas where the teams operate have been displaced in the past year alone," Dr. Cynthia, herself a Karen refugee, says. "And we see newly arrived Burmese here in the clinic every day."

As we walk through the clinic's many compounds, the 49-year-old physician tells me that the conflict on the border has disrupted people's traditional way of life and that more and more Burmese flee to Thailand with no plan to return. Villagers not only flee armed clashes, but also aim to escape the possibility of being conscripted as porters by the fighting forces. Land confiscation, arbitrary taxes and forced labour are commonplace as well.

"We have seen that there is a clear correlation between human rights abuse and high rates of malnutrition and mortality," Dr. Cynthia says. "Deaths from preventable diseases such as malaria are much higher on the Burmese side of the border than anywhere else in the region."

"In the past, people who crossed the border left some of their family behind and supported them by sending home money they earned in Thailand," she says. "Now we see entire families cross the border. They simply see no future in their homeland."

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