The warehouse of the Relief and Resettlement Department’s Rangoon office in Mayangone Township, where 17 returnees are being provided temporary shelter. Photo and caption by Hein Htet/The Irrawaddy. This edited article by Tin Htet Paing is from The Irrawaddy, an independent news website in Myanmar, and is republished on Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement. The story tackles the situation of some refugee returnees who are struggling to rebuild their lives back in Myanmar. A military dictatorship has ruled the country from 1962 until 2010, but it was only this year when the military lost total control of the government after its party lost in the elections. During the reign of the junta, a civil war involving state forces and ethnic armed groups intensified across the country, displacing residents and forcing thousands to seek refuge in nearby countries. The only reason 46-year-old former refugee U Aye Lwin returned to Myanmar was so that his six children could receive a formal education in his home country—the country he left eight years ago due to political turmoil. After having taken refuge in a camp on the Thai-Myanmar border since 2008, he decided to repatriate once the National League for Democracy-led government took office in April 2016 and welcomed the return of refugees. U Aye Lwin is one of 17 former refugees who recently returned to Yangon (the country’s biggest city) from the Nu Po camp located on the Thai-Myanmar border, which was established according to an official arrangement by the governments of Thailand and Myanmar, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), and the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The first batch of 65 returnees was repatriated to Myanmar via the Myawaddy-Mae Sot Friendship Bridge in late October. Seventeen of them asked to be sent to their homes in Yangon. U Aye Lwin made up his mind to earn money by doing any kind of job available so that his kids—from his 4-year-old son to his 18-year-old daughter—could go to school. But his homecoming hasn’t played out how he thought it would. Since arriving in Yangon in October, the 17 returnees—four families—have only been provided temporary shelter at a warehouse run by the Relief and Resettlement Department’s Yangon office in Mayangone Township, waiting for the regional government to arrange long-term accommodation. The department, operating under the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief, and Resettlement, provides 3,000 kyats (US$2.33) to each returnee for daily living expenses. In addition, each family has received 300,000 kyats (US$230) from the Union government, and the Thai government has offered 8,300 baht (US$230) per adult and 6,500 baht (US$180) per child before leaving Thailand. Daw Khin San Yee, 59, is a former political prisoner and, along with her husband, was a refugee at the Nu Po camp in 2009. Though she was a refugee, she followed news about Myanmar’s democratic transition on the radio and television—the only available news sources in the camp. I’ve been willing to return to Myanmar since its government transition [last year]. UNHCR and officials from the Myanmar government came to the camp and told us that we could officially register to return home—in dignity. Daw Khin San Yee, 59, is a former political prisoner and was a refugee, along with her husband, at the Nu Po camp in 2009. Photo and caption by Hein Htet/The Irrawaddy. All four families that The Irrawaddy spoke to last week said that their voluntary returns were driven by the fact that the NLD is in power. The Yangon regional government provided low-cost housing worth 9.8 million kyats (US$7,400) in the Shwe Linn Ban Industrial Zone in Hlaing Tharyar Township for the former refugees, but asked them to pay for it in installments, paying 30 percent upfront and the rest over eight years. Still, the families refused to buy the apartments, saying that they couldn’t afford them. The commercial capital’s rental prices for housing have increased nearly three-fold in less than 10 years. Asked if they owned any places in Yangon before they left Myanmar, Daw Khin San Yee and U Aye Lwin told The Irrawaddy that they have never been able to afford to buy apartments and that they previously had to rent places. Daw Khin San Yee explained: We returned from a refugee camp. We didn’t come back bringing heaps of money. How are we supposed to pay 3 million kyats [US$2,200]? U Thant Zin Maung, 47, returned home to get traditional medical treatment for his wife, who is unable to walk due to muscle atrophy in her legs. He said he would do any kind of work to afford hospitalizing his wife and sending his two children to school once he gets long-term accommodation for his family.