Koe was born an internally displaced person in a camp designated for people like him and his family.

An IDP is not legally a refugee, so they remain in a camp that they call home until moved to a refugee camp.

The Thai/Burmese border IDP camp was home until the family moved when Koe was five years old.

The Karenni family then moved to Mae Surin.

"When we are in a refugee camp we got a good chance to work with the missionaries and (opportunities) to study at high school," he said.

He said the missionaries who visit assist in getting refugees a permanent citizen status in Thailand.

This status then makes it easier for them to come to Australia.

Koe's mother, father, brother and two aunties stayed at Mae Surin when he moved to Mai La to get his high school certificate.

In 2005, he gained employment in Thailand at the International Rescue Committee, International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. 

"I started working for the NGOs along the Thai/Burmese border," he said.

"I was at the UNHCR for three or four years and then I moved to Australia.

"I worked there with the settlement assistant, working with the refugees.

"I helped a lot of people to gain refugee status."

Koe has two biological sisters in Bendigo while the rest of his family try persistently to make their way to Australia.

"My dad is 75 but he is strong," he said.

"He loves to have a garden."

Koe's family remains in Mae Surin despite coming irrefutably close to getting to Australia they were turned back on the final medical test.

They have an interview, where they answer six or seven pages of questions, which is then submitted to the embassy in Bangkok.

The embassy then read their story and their criteria. They check if the person meets the criteria of being registered as a refugee. They must pass a specific criteria of a background with trauma.

They must fit into the refugee quota set out by the International Organisation for Immigration, pass an initial medical test and complete cultural orientation, before they can leave the country. If the refugee gets to this stage then they are transported to Chiang Mai, then Bangkok for a final medical test before they can leave the country.

"It was the day they were set to depart," Koe said.

"Before they departed they had another medical check and at that stage they were turned back."

Koe said he was sad and frustrated at realising his family were rejected.

He said his sister had signed a house lease in Bendigo on her family's behalf in preparation for their arrival.

"It was embarrassing for them to go back," he said.

"They gave up their hut in the camp for others to live in. 

"When they go back they will have to negotiate to get their house back.

"They gave everything away. They feel shy (to return to the camp).

"People ask so many questions.

"It is punishment for them come back, like - what is wrong with your family? It is hard, it is a long process.”

Bendigo woman Gaynor Smith* visited Koe's family at Mae Surin Camp, Thailand in March of 2015.

She said she wanted gain a better understanding of the situations people are forced to live in, even if only for a short time.

"These people are just forgotten, the forgotten people of Mae Surin," she said.

What she saw at the camp disheartened her.

"In the dry season the families of the camp move their huts down to the river as it is their life source", she said.

Ms Smith said in the wet season the rapidly rising river then demolished all of the huts the refugees built and they are forced to move higher up into the mountain.

"It basically cuts the camp in half," she said.

"They would have to go without a lot of provisions in the rainy season because there is no way the four-wheel-drive bringing aid could get in."

She said the heartache of the refugees was obvious.

"There is a terrible sense of hopelessness, of helplessness," she said.

"This young man who was our guide was 22, and he had been in the camp for 14 years. 

"He just said to me, 'I have nothing to do'.

"They just have to wait until someone sponsors them so they can get out of there.

"A lot of people never leave - they spend their lives there and then they die.

"These people are so humble even though they have got nothing."

In 2013, a controversial fire hit Mae Surin killing 37 people and injuring 100 others. 

The fire, which destroyed 400 homes, was the worst fire in the history of refugee camps and was deemed suspicious because of the nature of its origin.

ABC's Southeast Asia correspondent Zoe Daniel reported at the time, "now there are allegations that the devastating fire was intentional."

"Some eye witnesses claim they saw burning objects falling from a helicopter, and Thai media have reported that traces of the chemical phosphorous were found in the house where the fire was thought to have started."

Mae Surin is not the only camp to be at risk, or to have experienced, a devastating fire. The Thai Border Consortium, a Non-Government Organisation, reported another fire nearby in Ban Mai Nai Soi in April, 2015, among others.

*The name of this person has been withheld because of the sensitive nature of the story.

Ms Smith wanted to thank the following for their donations: Bendigo First Aid Distributions provided bandages, burns kits and medical supplies; St Lukes Educational Services unit provided wind-up torches with solar panels for charging, mobile phones and soccer balls with pumps; AFL Central Victoria Football Development Manager Tony McNamara donated children’s footballs.