Page 3
MAE LA CAMP
On Saturday, Rudy and Tai drove us to the border town of Mae Sot (4 hour drive) and we met up with another long time Karen friend, Honest and his wife Jacquelyn, who had invited us to spend the night with them.
Honest was a young Karen teen when we first made contact. He had finished high school equivalent in Thailand and his father wanted him to go to Spiser University in India for a degree. Arrangements were made and Honest and a friend walked through the jungle for 1 month to get to the school in India. He was relying totally on faith and contacted me when he was starting his senior year to see if our organization could help him with his expenses. We were helping 3 of his friends at that time and they suggested that he contact me. We did not actually ever meet face to face until Rick and I met him and his wife 3 years ago In Mae Sot.
Honest is in charge of the vocational training programs in all the camps for ADRA aid organization. He had made arrangements for the 2 top men at the Karen Refugee Committee in Mae Sot, Bwet Say and George, to drive us to Mae La camp. They had arranged our camp passes and permission from the camp commander for us to enter on a Sunday.
Thailand is under Martial Law and the Military had closed the camps to anyone going in or out. There are many reasons for the closure, but we were told they were attempting to stem the flow of drugs going into Mae La camp. They had lifted the ban for week days, but still were enforcing it on weekends. We arrived at the camp about 8 am. Bwet Say and George got out to give our passes to the soldier guarding the gates. There was a long conversation and we were wondering what was going on. Bwet Say came back to the truck and said the soldier was not going to let us enter the camp! We couldn't believe what we were hearing. George and Bwet Say both whipped out their cell phones and started burning up the airwaves, but the camp commander wasn't answering his phone. We guessed he was in church, or perhaps he did not want to be bothered on Sunday. Lucky, our camp contact in Mae La camp, came out to the gate to see what the holdup was and the guard allowed him to come over to our truck to talk to us. He kept reassuring us that God had gotten us this far and we wouldn't be turned away.
A little later, his 2 sons, 2 daughters and wife came out. We had a short visit, but were told we could not get out of the truck. After about an hour Bwet Say said there was nothing more they could do, the soldier was afraid of getting in trouble with his boss if he let us in without talking to the camp commander. Lucky and his 2 adult daughters are the ones who disburse the children's sponsorship money for us in Mae La. We gave Lucky and his daughters the sponsor money we had brought in for the children (over $7,000.00). They unloaded the bags of gifts and clothing we had brought, and we said our good byes. Lucky's daughter promised to get as many pictures of the sponsored children as she could and send them to us. We were stunned and very disappointed by this unexpected event, but had to reassure ourselves that God is in control and there was a reason we were not allowed into the camp. We kept thinking of all the money it had cost to get this far, to just sit outside the camp gates. All the fences and gates had been re-enforced since our last trip in 2013 and we could see the military was definitely in command. It was truly difficult not being disappointed and discouraged, but we still had Mae Rah Moe camp to visit in a few days, and we were just thankful that we were able to see Lucky and his family and deliver the money, clothing and gifts we had brought for the children.
Before leaving the camp we were able to take this beautiful photo of Lucky's wife and daughters.
On the way back to Mae Sot we had a chance to talk with Bwet Say and George about what is really going on with the refugee situation. We have heard talk that the Thai government wants to repatriate them all back into Myanmar, but thousands of them have never lived there. The resettlement program sponsored by the United Nations High Commission on Refugees has resettled over 80,000 Karen from the camps to other countries willing to take them. The USA stopped their resettlement registration 2 years ago and when those waiting who have been approved for resettlement have been flown to U.S.A., there will be no more allowed in. There are currently talks going on with 4-5 different organizations trying to come up with a plan of successful repatriation. There is no infrastructure within Myanmar that can sustain an influx of thousands of Karen. The last figure I had was that there were almost 200,000 in the 6 camps. Available land for farming is scarce, and there are no retraining programs in place, or houses for them all to live in. Some say it could take several years to get a workable plan in place. However, there are some within the Thai government who say they will all be resettled in the next couple years.
The funding for rations to the organization who provides food for the camps has been cut drastically by donors. In the past, each person in the camp would get 13 kilos of rations each month. That has now been cut to 9 kilos of rice, yellow bean, fish paste, oil and charcoal for cooking. We learned that some Burmese sold their businesses and everything they owned and came to the camps in the hopes of being resettled, even though they weren't refugees. All those unregistered have to get their food on the black market in the camps.
George told us that shutting the camps has helped stem the tide of drugs and that is a very positive outcome. It had become a horrible problem, especially in Mae La camp. When the refugee camps were initially set up they were called "temporary shelters", but they became permanent many years ago.