But plans to consolidate three Padaung villages into a single refugee settlement are intensifying concerns among rights workers about their exploitation as a tourist attraction.

Already, busloads of foreigners on "eco-tourism" trips pile into the remote villages every day to pose beside the Padaung "giraffe women" - so-called for their elongated necks propped up on layers of brass coils.

Some visitors along with Padaung people say the tours are more akin to trips to a human zoo.

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"I'm happy when lots of tourists come here and I have a good time with them," said 21-year-old Ma Ri, who fled Burma 10 years ago. "But when I think harder about it, they are coming because we are strange and that gives me mixed feelings."

Unfortunately, say refugee rights campaigners, Thailand's exploitation of its hill-tribe communities is nothing new.

"Thai people, I'm sorry to say, are insensitive to their minorities, and the hill-tribe minorities have always been a money attraction," Senator Kraisak Choonhavan said.

"If you look at advertisments for the north, you find countless pictures of all these colorful peoples," he said, "and yet there has been no progress" in integrating them into Thai society.

As well as citing security concerns, government officials in Mae Hong Son province, 920 kilometers north of Bangkok, say the new settlement is vital to preserving ancient Padaung culture.

They also concede that ancient culture means tourist dollars.

"We will encourage each group to brainstorm how they could conserve their traditions to attract tourists to come, see and feel it for real," said provincial governor Direk Ghonkleeb.

Although all the other camps housing 140,000 refugees from Burma in Thailand are closed to outsiders, tourists pay between 250 baht (HK$52.25) and 500 baht each to enter Padaung villages.

However, the women themselves, who are barred from leaving the villages, receive only a fraction of that - often as little as 1,500 baht a month - and have to supplement their income selling trinkets and postcards. REUTERS