00:00Along Cambodia's northwest border with Thailand, villagers say a long-standing dispute between Phnom Penh and Bangkok has forced them from their homes.
00:08Here, a makeshift barrier makes clear. Cambodian citizens are not welcome.
00:16Now the Thai thieves have seized it all. I'm so shocked. Everything is gone, including my land.
00:23Cambodia says the border conflict has driven nearly half a million Cambodians, mostly women and children, from their homes.
00:30The Thais reset us to zero. We don't have any more hope.
00:37Many Cambodians settled along the 800-kilometer Cambodia-Thailand border as refugees after the fall of the Khmer Rouge.
00:46Decades later, they are once again losing their homes and livelihoods to conflict.
00:51The Thai army kicked me out of my home.
00:58When I was returning from a market, a Thai soldier grabbed my hand and they installed the barbed wire.
01:03They were all paramilitary. They stole my land.
01:07The conflict stems from a stretch of the border disputed since the colonial period.
01:11Thailand says its operations are based on maps and treaty lines, while Cambodia says the same territory has been theirs for decades.
01:22Recent clashes erupted as villagers in areas claimed by Thailand built roads, homes and farms, leading to forced evacuations.
01:29It was their territory. Why didn't they claim it 20 years ago?
01:36But after we built a road and nice houses, they said we took their land.
01:40For its part, Thailand says its operations are meant to reduce risks to civilians.
01:44In any area where civilians are present, that area must be treated with particular caution to ensure civilians are not affected.
01:56So before any operation in an area like this, it is necessary to reduce civilian presence, which means civilians must leave first.
02:05In 2025, fighting escalated into tit-for-tat shelling, with both sides accusing the other of hitting civilian areas.
02:12People in Thailand also had their homes destroyed or damaged and were later forced into shelters.
02:20I was at an evacuation center. I was staying at a relative's house to take shelter.
02:25My father was staying in a bunker here and would only come back in the evenings briefly to look after the house.
02:31Thailand says nearly 430,000 of its own people have been displaced.
02:38We came back to look, hoping there might be something we could salvage.
02:41Decades after war drove them here, border communities on both sides are again losing their homes and livelihoods to conflict.
02:56Cambodia and Thailand continue to dispute territory, with both governments claiming the same land.
03:01With civilians caught in the middle, it remains unclear when, or if, the fighting will end.
03:06Andy Schraett and Brynn Thomas for Taiwan Plus.
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