We are looking now at Myanmar, where the military government is saying it has pardoned 3,300 prisoners and move former leader, Angsang Su Qi, from prison to house arrest. State media, quoting a spokesman for the junta said extremely hot weather had caused Ms. Su Qi and other elderly prisoners to be relocated as a precaution against heat stroke. The Nobel Laureate has been in jail since she was ousted in a coup in 2021, and it comes a week after the military suffered yet another significant defeat when it lost control of the main border crossing into Thailand. The army is now very short of recruits after losing thousands of soldiers in recent battles to injury desertion or surrenders. It's imposed a national conscription law now, meaning that all males between the age of 18 and 35 can be called up to fight. With much of the country supporting the armed opposition, and young men are fleeing Myanmar in their thousands to avoid the call-up. Here's our Southeast Asia correspondent, Jonathan Head, who's been to meet some who are now hiding in Thailand. For their safety. He's concealed their identities.

Thailand is bracing for the impact of a civil war in Myanmar, which has come right up to the border. Across the river, ethnic Karen insurgents have now taken control of the main crossing between the two countries. The fighting Everything is driving even more people to seek sanctuary over here. Mesot has become a warren of safehouses, sheltering the fugitives. But some of the families here are fleeing something house. This boy's eldest brother is 19, a dangerous age. He was about to be called up under the army's new conscription law. His anti-military parents were horrified and chose to flee from Yang John, making a 15-day trek over the mountains to get here, carrying very little.

I could not accept my son being forced to fight other young men, says his father.

There are thousands of young men now hiding out in this part of Thailand who fled the military's call up in Myanmar. Very few of them have proper paperwork, and so they live in constant fear of being sent back. I've come to meet one 23-year-old man who arrived here only three weeks ago and who's now made his temporary home among these fields.

Nine fugitives from conscription are living under this leaf thatch shelter, together with a sorted livestock. Sanjay, not his real name, has already seen his father jailed for supporting the resistance. So when his call-up papers came, his mother helped him escape.

Back home, I felt afraid every day that they would come to take me into the army. Even though we have very little food here, just rice and vegetables, no one will come to harm me. I feel free here in Thailand..

It's a precarious existence, though. Without documents, most of those sheltering in Mesot cannot leave the town and have had to give up any hope of good jobs or education. Mental stress is rife among the refugees.

Their education is stopped. They cannot support their family. They cannot support themselves. There is no job for them. So they started thinking about, I'm useless. My future is to stop. A lot of young people are attempted suicide in these situations.

This month, it's the traditional New Year Water Festival, an exuberant time to let off steam in the searing heat. But there are thousands unable to join the fund this year, either because they're hiding over here or because they're fighting against the military junta on the other side of the border. Jonathan Head, BBC News, Mesot, Thailand.