MAE SOT, Thailand — For Burmese refugees fleeing into Thailand, this border town is the preferred point of entry. Political dissidents wanted by the authorities in Rangoon, ethnic minorities fleeing endless wars with Burma’s military, and migrant laborers drawn by better pay are among those who routinely cross over the Moei River, which separates Burma from Thailand. What voices can be heard above the buzz of motorbikes along Mae Sot’s two main drags are as likely to be speaking Burmese as Thai. When Burma’s military junta cracked down last month on the largest demonstrations the country had seen since 1988, the exile community here prepared safe houses and waited for the droves of Burmese likely to be on the run. Yet few refugees have appeared. Burmese activists in Mae Sot say they know of 20 participants in the demonstrations who fled here this month, eight of whom The New York Sun interviewed.

“The current thinking is this is not going to mean many more people,” a United Nations resettlement officer in Mae Sot, Eldon Hager, said.

By the United Nations’ count, 52 arrivals in Bangkok or Mae Sot have applied for refugee status after fleeing the crackdown, a U.N. spokeswoman on refugee issues, Kitty McKinsey, said by telephone from Bangkok.

Burmese politicians in exile are searching for an explanation why an expected flood of refugees turned out to be a trickle. The small number of refugees, they say, is all the more startling when compared to the aftermath of demonstrations in 1988. A bloody crackdown resulting in 3,000 deaths, human rights groups say, prompted about 10,000 Burmese to seek refuge in Thailand. And thousands of other students fled to the jungle not far from the Thai border to form an army.

“People are sticking inside because they have hope,” the head of the foreign affairs committee for Burma’s main opposition party, the National League for Democracy, Nyo Ohn Myint, said in an interview here.

One recent arrival from Rangoon, Ye Htun Kyaw, said the trickle of refugees meant many activists were choosing to stay put and organize the next round of demonstrations.

“They realize the importance of the inside movement, so they decided to stay in Rangoon,” Ye Htun Kyaw, who was released from prison in 2005 after serving part of a 21-year sentence for organizing a student demonstration in 1998, said. But others believe the small numbers of refugees is proof of how brutally effective the junta’s crackdown, ongoing since September 26, has been in paralyzing movement within the country.

“Not many people can travel freely, especially those who are involved in the demonstrations,” the spokesman for the National Council of the Union of Burma, Soe Aung, said by telephone from Bangkok. “They’re in hiding.”

Also, many others who would flee may be in jail for their role in the demonstrations. The junta, known as the State Peace and Development Council, has detained about 6,000 people as part of the crackdown, dissidents say. Ye Htun Kyaw said he knows of 20 “close friends” who are either in prison or unaccounted for.

Another factor in the small number of recent refugees could be that it is more difficult to reach Thailand from Rangoon or Burma’s second largest city, Mandalay, than it used to be. Large swaths of the country have long been under control of ethnic minorities, whose armies have waged war with Burma’s military.

Refugees from Rangoon and elsewhere once relied on safe passage from these groups. But Burma has signed cease-fires with well over a dozen opposition armies in the last 20 years, and, in the process, Burma’s military has increased its control over the border areas. One ethnic minority opposition force, the Karen National Liberation Army, does continue to fight along the border not far from Mae Sot, but it controls less land than it did in 1988.

For those fleeing, “it used to be much easier to get in contact with these organizations and receive assistance from them,” Soe Aung said.

Ye Htun Kyaw, the former political prisoner, arrived here on October 4, about 24 hours after he left Rangoon. On the evening of October 3, after several nights spent sleeping in other people’s homes and storefronts to avoid arrest, Ye Htun Kyaw, 33, and a friend, Nay Win Hleing, 32, set out from Rangoon.

The two friends had each served prison sentences for marching in demonstrations calling on the junta to honor the results of the country’s 1990 parliamentary elections, which have gone ignored. Banned from attending Burma’s universities upon their release, the two were studying English and organizing campaigns such as trips to pagodas to pray on behalf of political prisoners when the demonstrations broke out.

To reach the border, the friends took a zigzag route on three buses, getting off each time before their ticketed destination to throw off any police who might be waiting for them. Their route took them through 38 government checkpoints, Ye Htun Kyaw recalled, saying he counted them along each portion of the route. One was manned by a Karen guerrilla group the junta. At most stops, the bus was simply waved on through, although Ye Htun Kyaw and Nay Win Hleing were forced to show identification at three checkpoints.

“They didn’t ask any questions,” Ye Htun Kyaw said. “We were so happy to reach the border. On the way, we were very worried and scared. If they found out who we are, they would arrest us.”

For the last leg of the journey, the two men hired a driver who ferried them to the border on motorbikes. They took a boat across the Moie River and contacted an exile group. With no legal status in Thailand, they now live in hiding at a safe house and rarely venture outside.