MOST of us take it for granted that we can travel where we want.

But for the Burmese people forced to flee from civil war to the safety Thai border, their movement is restricted to the confines of the refugee camps.

For the adults, they remember life before the camp.

But thousands of young people have been born there - and are not allowed to leave.

Mae La camp was formed in 1984. Originally there were 1100 people but, over the following 30 years, it has grown to 40,000.

Marjoy Htoo, 19, and Loyal Moo, 20, are two young people born in Mae La camp.

Neither Marjoy nor Loyal has a birth certificate and so neither has access to a passport so they belong neither to Burma nor to Thailand.

To pass the time, Loyal plays guitar while Marjoy plays piano. They help their mothers with the weaving, a means to make a little extra money on the side. And both are dedicated to their studies.

I ask them where they get their news from, where do they get a sense of the outside world?

"Facebook," they both reply. "Sometimes we access social media," says Loyal. "I use it for the news, information from around the world. I like America’s Got Talent, so I can learn English. Sometimes I look at the BBC."

Although there is internet in the camp, access is sporadic and expensive and far from accessible for everyone.

Both young people have been supported by Dr Wado, who was 13 when he arrived in Mae La in 1988. A teacher in the Bible School, Christian charities paid for him to study for a Masters degree in India and a doctorate in the Philippines.

He is now married to a woman who resettled in Texas, but returned to be with him, and they have a baby son.

Despite these opportunities, he stays. He feels it is his duty, from God, to share his knowledge with the young people who make up around 50 per cent of the camp's population.

Dr Wado tells me that he has set up a cafe, thanks to the donation of an espresso machine, and so I show a group of young people how to steam milk for cappuccinos.

Education at his school has become so renowned that boarding pupils come from across Thailand and Burma to study.

Dr Wado's dream is to build a football stadium for his young people in Burma.

He said: "Next year, we will go places and rebuild. We have to go places and see.

"I see myself building a really beautiful football stadium, for the students. But I will be too old to play.

"But we are already hoping to provide more opportunities for the students, here or inside, it doesn’t matter, but it’s our dream, we’re talking about it."

After decades of military rule, a new era of democracy has been dawning for Burma since elections in 2011.

Despite the Karen National Union (KNU) signing last year’s Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA), there are still skirmishes and refugees are afraid to return.

Pressure, though, is rising inside Thailand to repatriate the 100,000 refugees in the country's nine border camps.

A conglomerate of charities, The Border Consortium, has moved its focus from humanitarian work towards preparedness and development for refugee-led return.

Loyal said: "It’s difficult to predict when it’ll be the right time to go back, especially as my parents are getting old.

"At the moment, we can’t go outside easily. Because we live in camps, it’s difficult for us to leave. We’re not free."

Kathai Mae is another of the camp's young people but her situation is incredibly different from her peers.

The 23-year-old has an 11-month-old son, Laybeinoo, and is already six months pregnant with her next baby.

She is head of a household of seven younger siblings. The smallest is just five and not all the children are registered in the camp, meaning Kathai must make the rations of three people last between nine.

Her family are Muslim and faced persecution in Burma. She married in the camp in the Mosque built in the Muslim section.

Kathai tells me of the terrible circumstances that led to her being in charge of the family.

Her parents had spent the evening arguing and when the children went upstairs to bed their voices were still raised. Kathai woke at 5am to the sounds of her mother's screams.

Her father had stabbed her. She bled to death on the dirt floor of the hut, on the space where Kathai and I are speaking.

Her father was found nearby a short time later having stabbed himself. He died in the camp's medical centre where care is basic and not equipped for such trauma.

Kathai's mother ran a fruit stall and now Kathai has taken it over.

The Border Consortium (TBC), a network of humanitarian and development agencies including Christian Aid, feeds the residents of the camps. They receive rations of rice, fish paste, charcoal for cooking with, and peanut oil.

Kathai's husband is registered with UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and has the right to resettle in the US. Kathai will not go unless all her siblings can go too.

"If I’m the one who went to the US, the rest of the siblings would be in big trouble as I’m the only one who is earning money for the family at the moment," she says.

"I could possibly go, but my siblings can’t, so who will look after them?

"Everyone needs to stay together as a family. Because my mother has gone and I’m the oldest, I’m the head of the family and must keep us together."

UMPIEM Mai camp sits two hours away from Mae La, up winding mountain roads. Football has found a home here. The camp has a tournament, as does Mae La.

Ehkley Htoom's favourite team is Real Madrid, but he follows the Netherlands. He didn't know former resident of the camp, Kler Her, who is now signed for Sheffield United but that young man is a local legend and the boys all take an interest in how he's getting on in the UK.

Ehkley, 24, was taken by the Burmese Army from his village and made an army slave but he escaped.

He works for TBC and has undertaken training in construction so he has skills to call on, if he needs them.

Ehkley stays away from the young people who drink and take drugs, although he chews bitternut, a chewing tobacco popular in Asia. His job with TBC earns him 1300 baht - £29 - a month, which he likes to spend on milk, tea and snacks. Like Loyal and Marjoy, he says that if he was to return to Burma, the only thing he would like to take is his education.

And what does he want from his new life? "A place where I’m free to travel, to have an education, to go to hospital if I need to."

HOW TO DONATE:

Christian Aid, which has offices on Glasgow's Bath Street, is urging people to support its Christmas Appeal this festive season, so that it can continue to provide critical support to some of the millions of people worldwide who have been forced to leave their homes through fear and uncertainty in the worst global displacement crisis of our time.

Just £5 could give an essential set of clothes to a person fleeing violence, £11 could supply a week's worth of hygiene essentials to a family of five in Serbia, and £50 could provide seeds and tools to help a family forced out of their home in the DRC to grow food to feed themselves.

For information, or to donate to the Christmas Appeal, visit www.christianaid.org.uk/Christmas