Refugee stories

Just to give you an insight in and a bit of understanding of what I am dealing with in my daily work here at the UNHCR I’ll give you some short summaries of my memory of some of the refugees stories I have heard or read about so far.

But first a little opening statement by UNCHR concerning the situation in Myanmar:

The UN Commission on Human Rights (CHR) has expressed
“its grave concern at extrajudicial killings; reports of rape and other forms of sexual violence persistently carried out by members of the armed forces; continuing use of torture; renewed instances of political arrests and continuing detentions, including of prisoners whose sentences have expired; forced relocation; destruction of livelihoods and confiscations of land by the armed forces; forced labour, including child labour; trafficking in persons; denial of freedom of assembly, association, expression and movement; discrimination and persecution on the basis of religious or ethnic background; wide disrespect for the rule of law and lack of independence of the judiciary; unsatisfactory conditions of detention; systematic use of child soldiers; and violations of the rights to an adequate standard of living, such as food, and to medical care and to education.”

The violations of these human rights as well as ongoing armed conflict in Myanmar have led to refugee outflows and internal displacement.

I had an interview last week with a young family from Myanmar. They had both fled their country due to fear of presecution and arrest by the Myanmar military. The husband was suspected to be a supporter of the Chin National Army. One day when he was on his way back home form church he saw several soldiers apporaching his house. He then fled in to the jungle and managed to get help to go to Malaysia. As the soldiers couldn’t find him they arrested his wife instead. The wife had just given birth to their first-born son the week before and she was now separated from her baby and brought to a detention camp. After her third day in detention, one of the military captains came to see her in her cell. He then pulled out a knife, forced her to un-dress and raped her. During the rape the woman managed to get a hold of the knife and started to fight with the captain, but the only thing she achieved was getting a deep cut in her arm. Standing in her cell, naked, raped, blood running from her body due to the fact that she newly gave birth, milk pouring out of her breasts and tears streaming from her eyes, the captain threatened her to silence. A few day later she was bailed out by her father and then she fled to Malysia to find her husband. She has till this day not told anyone about her rape exept from the UNHCR. Not her father, not her sister, not her husband. The secret is hers to keep.

I met a young man the other day. He was about 24 years old. Both his legs were broken and he just had a complicated surgery. He could barely move forward with his crutches. He told me his whole familiy was dead. That he came alone to Malaysia after being forced to do military training. After being forced to work hard. After being hit, abused, tortured…
He told me he was all alone in this world and that the only thing he wanted was to be resetteled to a third country in order to get some kind of a normal life. I hope he get resetteled. I hope he someday will have a normal life.

Another young man came to see me in the office the other day. He was here do do his interview for getting his submission to a third country. He was only 21 years old. He has been in detention in Malaysia for over a year. His eyes were empty. No life in them at all. He had the ”no lust for life” look upon his face. It was difficult not to cry afterwards. To young, but to old at the same time.

And the stories continues…