One Refugee Family's Story

by Yorn Yan, author of New Americans, New Promise: A Guide to the Refuee Journey in America

On April 17th, 1975, a communist guerrilla group called Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, took power in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. Approximately 2 million Cambodians died by starvation, torture, or execution. In 1979, the Vietnamese invaded and liberated the Cambodian people from Khmer Rouge. Many Cambodians saw no difference between the Khmer Rouge and the grim new regime installed by Vietnam. Like the Khmer Rouge, it offered no rights or freedoms. These people faced a difficult choice and asked themselves thousands of times, “Do we seek freedom or death?” Some 600,000 fled to camps along the border of Thailand.

Among these people was a family of four brothers, two sisters, and a mother. In 1979, they crossed the Thai-Cambodian border and entered a refugee camp in Thailand, hoping to find a safer life. One night, in 1985, a fight broke out in the camp between Vietnamese troops and anti-communist movement fighters called the Khmer People National Liberation Front (KPNLF). During this fight, three of the brothers were separated from their sisters, mother, and eldest brother, and joined hundreds of thousand Cambodians who were forced to move deeper inside the border of Thailand. There, the brothers were welcomed by United Nations’ staff in a refugee camp called Khao I Dang Camp. In time, they received their refugee status.

Meanwhile, their oldest brother, two sisters, and mother all stayed in a refugee camp located along the border. Two years later, the two sisters and mother decided to cross the border into Khao I Dang Camp in order to find a safer place to live and to join the three brothers. Their reunion was joyful, but these three family members, who had just entered into the camp, were not qualified for refugee status. Because they were not registered, they did not get food or water from the United Nations for months. Without United Nations identification cards, they had to avoid Thai authorities, hiding like rats underground. After six months, Thai authorities searched for and captured the two sisters and their mother and transported them back to a refugee camp along the border called Site Two Camp. Seven years later, the three brothers became American citizens and sponsored their brother, sisters, and mother to come the United States.

That family is, in fact, my family. Sadly, my father and youngest brother were not with us in the camps or later in America. They were among those who died in Cambodia. Our story is just one of thousands. I have heard this kind of story almost everywhere. Lack of food and security are common problems faced by refugees while in the protection of the UN and in the authority of the second country. There are no safe places at night in refugee camps. Refugees experience or hear shootings in the camps by armed people demanding money or forcing children to join the armed forces. Refugees experience life as the lowest class people. It is miserable.

— Yorn Yan