History: The long shadows of refuge, stories of Cambodian refugees in Thailand

In the late 1970s, as the brutal Khmer Rouge regime plunged Cambodia into horror, hundreds of thousands of Cambodians fled their country, finding precarious refuge in camps on the Thai border. These camps, such as Khao I Dang and Sakéo, appeared to be temporary havens in the face of genocide, but their reality soon proved to be far more complex and painful.

Fleeing into the unknown

Cheak tells the story of how, in October 1979, he and twenty thousand other compatriots crossed the border into Cambodia and ended up in Sakéo, a camp that had just opened.

‘It was as if Auschwitz had landed,’ he recalls, recalling the extreme distress of the refugees dressed in black pyjamas, silent, exhausted, some unable to take another step.

All around them, barbed wire stretched out, symbolising their confinement. These thousands of people were neither officially recognised nor guaranteed security, despite the promise of a temporary sanctuary administered by the Thai government and various international organisations.

A life of hope and insecurity

Sotheara Phan, a Cambodian refugee, describes the pervasive insecurity in the camp, where her family lived in bamboo huts without the support offered to officially registered refugees.

Deprived of food rations, medical care and education, they depended on the financial support of a family member living in the United States to survive. This life in the shadows was constantly threatened by brutal raids by Thai soldiers, who arrested, beat and sometimes killed or turned away unregistered refugees. Some Thai soldiers also extorted money from the refugees in exchange for their survival, making life even more precarious.

The double threat of war and refuge

Mr Youk Chhang, a Khmer Rouge survivor and director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, also experienced life in hiding in the Khao I Dang camp. Along with other unregistered refugees, he hid under an abandoned house to escape Thai military patrols.

Food was often in short supply, and the fear of being denounced and deported to an ever-deadly Cambodia never left him. Despite this worrying situation, he was able to benefit from the schools and training offered in the camp, a glimmer of hope in a context of extreme uncertainty.

Violence and abuse in the camp

Beyond the external threat, the camps themselves were often places of violence. Testimonies from former refugees denounce the physical exactions, arbitrary arrests and abuses of power committed by certain Thai military units responsible for security.

These acts of violence added to the feeling of confinement and despair among the occupants, who had fled the war only to find themselves in the harshness of a ‘refuge’ that was far from safe.

Resilience and solidarity

In the midst of these difficulties, a community of solidarity gradually formed. Refugees shared their resources, supporting those in an illegal situation with rations obtained by others.

Despite the harsh conditions - strict rationing, insalubrious housing, limited access to healthcare - international NGOs, religious missions and volunteers worked tirelessly to provide vital aid: medical care, education, food. This network of mutual aid was an essential pillar in the survival of thousands of families.

Forty years on, survivors such as James Taing tell the truth about the traumas buried in these camps, which have marked several generations. The refuge was also a place of painful memories mixed with hope and pain, reflecting a devastated country and an often forced exile. The story of the refugees underlines the importance of not forgetting these tragedies, which have shaped the long and complex face of contemporary Cambodia.