Refugees | My Florida Families

Guest post by Hiram Ruiz, DCF’s Director of Refugee Services. He will be contributing a series of blog posts over the next week detailing his trip to Asia, where he is spending time with refugees.

The drive from Mae Sot town to Mae La refugee camp is about 45 minutes. The scenery along the way is breathtaking: shimmering green rice paddies framed by rugged mountains that disappear into the mist.

As we approach Mae La, a dramatic contrast between man and nature emerges. The rice paddies suddenly give way to row after row of thatched-roofed shacks packed closely together behind barbed wire fences. Mae La may be a refugee camp, but it is in fact also a large town that is home to some 47,000 Burmese refugees.

Mae La camp

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees arranged my visit to the camp, and two of their staff – one Bosnian and one Thai-Burmese – are accompanying me on the visit. They show the guards at the gate (all the entrances to the camp are guarded by uniformed Thai military) our permits and we proceed to meet the Camp Commander.

After introductions and coffee, I explain to the Commander that more than 1,000 Burmese refugees have been resettled in Florida – including many from this very camp. I tell him that we are generally able to help the refugees become self-sufficient and many do well, though some do struggle to adapt. I explain our integration assistance program that provides case management to select families that may face more challenges than others.

I am interested to know what they have heard about the experiences of refugees who have resettled in Florida and also what their hopes and expectations are for when they go to Florida themselves. He gives the green light for our visit to proceed.

Cultural orientation center, where families are prepared to move to the U.S.

It has been raining every day for a month and the roads in the camp are muddy and slippery. Our first stop is the building where an American non-profit contracted by the U.S. State Department provides an orientation program for refugees scheduled to resettle in the U.S. I am pleasantly surprised to see a hut at the center that is fully equipped with a U.S.-style kitchen. It’s quite strange to see a modern stove, refrigerator and dishwasher in a thatched roof hut on a muddy road in the middle of a refugee camp. But I’m glad to know refugees from this camp will arrive knowing that the oven is for cooking and not for storing clothes.

Traditional Mae La kitchen. A big difference from the modern U.S.-style kitchen found in the orientation center.

The Bosnian UNHCR officer relates a story of a refugee who resettled in the U.S. who complained to their relatives in the camp that they were provided a television but it had no picture – it was a microwave! I am not making light of the refugees’ experience, but rather trying to convey just how far removed their world in the camp (or even in their former homes in remote villages in Burma) is from the world they will encounter when they arrive in the U.S.

Our next stop is a day care center run by members of the Karen Women’s Organization. A large majority of the refugees in Mae La are ethnic Karen and the KWO runs day care centers, provides assistance to elderly and disabled refugees and single mothers, and assists victims of domestic violence (sadly, a too prevalent problem in a place where families live in overcrowded conditions with no work, few distractions and often little hope for the future).

There are dozens of children at the day care center, shy but quick to smile. The conditions in the center are basic, but the children are well cared for and seem cheerful. I am glad that I have brought several bags full of crayons, colored pencils, pencil sharpeners, pens and balloons that I will give to the KWO leaders when I meet them. Yes, I know, balloons are not very practical, but they are fun! They will certainly add a dash of color to their otherwise rather harsh surroundings.

Tomorrow:

Mae La refugee leaders’ thoughts on recent political developments in Burma and their implications for the refugees.

Guest post by Hiram Ruiz, DCF’s Director of Refugee Services. He will be contributing a series of blog posts over the next week detailing his trip to Asia where he will spend time with refugees.

I arrived in Thailand Friday night and today, Monday, am heading to Mae Sot near the Thai-Burmese border area. While there, I will visit Mae La, the largest camp in Thailand for refugees from Burma (also called Myanmar).

There are more than half a million Burmese refugees in Thailand with about 140,000 living in 10 camps along the border. Others live in nearby towns and villages. In recent years, the U.S. Department of State has offered resettlement to the U.S. to thousands of Burmese who had been living in the refugee camps. Many had been living in the camps for years or even decades and would otherwise have been condemned to a life without hope in the crowded camps, where they are not allowed to work or farm, and with very limited educational opportunities. Since 2007, Florida has become home to more than 1,000 Burmese refugees resettled by the State Department, primarily to Jacksonville and Tampa, though some to Orlando and Clearwater.

Burma is governed by a communist military regime that has for decades suppressed democracy and abused its citizens, particularly ethnic minorities that live in areas near the Thai border. Most of the refugees in Mae La Camp are “Karen,” one of Burma’s ethnic minorities; many of them are Christian. Since 1983, the Burmese military has destroyed Karen villages and subjected men, women and children to forced labor, prompting tens of thousands to flee to Burma.

In 1998, widespread support for a Burmese pro-democracy party led by Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi culminated in more than 80 percent of the population voting in favor of Suu Kyi’s party, but the military junta suppressed the election’s results, placed Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest, and cracked down on the pro-democracy movement’s supporters, leading to another exodus of refugees to Thailand.

It is only in the past year that the Burmese military has begun to ease its iron-fist rule. It released Aund San Suu Kyi from her years of house arrest and permitted elections. Suu Kyi has taken a seat in parliament and the U.S. and other Western countries have begun to improve relations with Burma. Given what happened in 1998, many – particularly the ethnic minorities and the refugees in Thailand – remain wary of the sincerity of the Burmese military’s intentions. Time will tell. It is not a good omen, however, that the Burmese military has recently resumed brutal of repression another ethnic minority, Muslim Rohingya who live in western Burma near the Bangladesh border, causing an exodus of tens of thousands more Burmese Rohingya refugees to Bangladesh.

While in Mae La camp, I will meet refugee leaders, camp officials, and United Nations personnel, who will share their thoughts on the future of Burma, the camps, and of the resettlement program. I will also visit Burmese refugees scheduled to resettle to Florida, as well as relatives of Burmese refugees already in Jacksonville. I am taking one Burmese grandmother in the camp a photo of her newborn grandson, who she has not yet seen!

Tomorrow: Mae La

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Category Archives: Refugees

Day 2: Mae La: Thailand’s largest camp for Burmese refugees

Day 1: I’ve Arrived in Thailand