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Return to Home Land

Story and written byKyaw Thein KhaJune 18, 2009

just want to share my experience when I returnedhome from Malaysia. After working for about one yearin an NGO in Thai-Burma border, I moved to Malaysiaas I was asked for help from a Burmese socialorganization in Malaysia.One month visa was chopped in my passport at KualaLumpur International Airport (KLIA). I stayed for onemonth in Kuala Lumpur, helping the organization inwhat they needed. Two days before my visa expired, Iwent to Putra Jaya immigration office to extend my visafor another one month. Instead, one of the Malaysian

“

Then, we all were locked in the Thai immigration

police truck

immigration officers chopped a rejected stamp in my

and deported on the bank of Thaung Yin River which

passport. I was very angry with the officer and asked

separates Thailand and Burma.

”

him why he did so. Even if he could not issue anotherone month visa, he should simply say that he could not do so. Now, my visa was rejected by theimmigration. It is not easy for a Burmese passport holder even to apply for a tourist visa to go to Thailand,one of the neighboring countries of Burma. The rejected stamp in my passport would make me difficult toapply for the visas in the embassies. The consular would not easily issue a visa on a passport with rejectedstamp. Finally, I decided to stay in Malaysia until my visa expired.I stayed in Malaysia illegally over one year. One day, I got a surgery at KL general hospital because of aurinal problem in male reproductive organ. I still remember the day on which I was discharged from thehospital. It was on 6

May, 2008. When I arrived at my room, I heard that everybody was saying about

Nargis. I didn’t know what Nargis was. I didn’t ask my friends to come and me

et me at the hospital during

being hospitalized for about one week as I didn’t want them to waste their time

instead of working in

factories. So, I didn’t hear about Nargis. I asked them “What’s Nargis?” Then, they said that Nargis was the

name of a cyclone that effected in Yangon and delta region of Burma on 2

and 3

of May, 2009. They alsosaid that Nargis killed over 100, 000 people and made 1, 000, 000 people homeless in delta region in Burma.I was curious about Nargis victims more than I had heard. I rushed to the internet shop nearby my room. I

visited the news sites. I used Google search and typed “Pictures of Nargis Victims” in the search box. Then,

I found pictures of dead bodies of Nargis victims - children, men, women and the dead bodies of animals;terrible pictures. I had been out of contact with my family for a long time. I wanted to know the situation of my family. I started to worry about my family.When I felt well and the wound also almost healed, I decided to return home. I had to contact a broker whowould transfer me to the hands of different brokers along the way to Burma. As I was staying in Malaysiaillegally, I could not take flight to my land. There is only one way for illegal ones to choose. That

’s

to besmuggled through the borders illegally. To do that, we have to pay the money to brokers who know the wayhow to smuggle through Malaysia-Thai border and Thai-Burma border. I told the broker which way I

wanted to take. That’s Kuala Lumpur

-Mae Sot

–

Yangon. Mae Sot is the name of a town on Thai-Burmaborder. The brokers said that I had to pay 800 Malaysian Ringgit to arrive in Burma, i.e, I had to pay 230 USdollars to broker

for his service. I didn’t have enough money to reach full amount to pay the broker that I

borrowed the rest of the amount from one of my friends. I had to take the bus from KL to Penang as thebroker lived in Penang. It was about a five-hour drive to arrive in Penang. The bus left KL at 11 pm and itarrived in Penang bus terminal at 4 am. The broker picked me up by motorbike at 6 am. When I arrived at

the broker’s house, he explained me about the track detail. He’s a Burmese. He said that as the two

Malaysian brokers would pick me up at a Burmese restaurant at 3 pm, there left so much time for me to havea shower, eat and take a rest.

I had already understood that it was very dangerous for a person to be smuggled through the borders

illegally. But, I didn’t have any legal travel document. I had only one way to choose. That’s to smuggle

through the borders. I

f I were checked by the police on the way, I’d surely be arrested. I had too muchworries and stress on my situation. I didn’t want to eat nor had a shower. Besides, I know about the brokers

well as I was a social worker in Malaysia. The victims whom I helped often told me how the brokers treatedthem badly.

So, I dared not trust every broker. If I were trafficked, I’d be handed over to the rubber plantation owners or fisheries boats and be made a slave. Then, it’d be the end of my life.

But, there are some brokers who are working honestly for their survival. If there is no broker in smuggling

borders, how can we go back home? We don’t know the way. We could be arrested by Malaysian police on

the way to smuggle through Malaysia-Thai border. Suppose we could fortunately and safely smuggle intoThailand from Malaysia, we could possibly arrested by the Thai police when we pass the check points on theway to Mae Sot. It is not easy as we think to smuggle a border illegally. Because of those reasons, we haveto contact the brokers. As for me, my trust was only on Buddha. Whatever happened to me, good or bad,depended on my Karma what I did in the past. I kept the teachings of Buddha in the deepest level of myheart.

If I didn’t die on the way, I’

d arrive at home.

That’s all I might think in current situation of mine.

At about 12:30 noon, the Burmese broker brought me to nearby a Burmese restaurant and we waited for thetwo Malaysian brokers. At nearly 3 pm, the two Malaysian brokers drove a taxi toward the two of us. Then,

the three brokers talked in Malay. I didn’t understand what they said. I told the Burmese broker that I couldnot pay all 800 Ringgits at once and I’d pay 400 Ringgits when I could smuggle into Thailand’s side, andthen, I’d pa

y the rest amount of 400 Ringgits when I safely arrive in Mae Sot. But, the Burmese broker said

that I could not do so and I had to pay all 800 ringgits to his brother who is a broker in Thailand’s side. He

also said that he wanted me to trust him as he had cleared everything on the way. So, I had to agree with

what he said. Then, I said “Good bye” to Burmese broker and got in taxi to go to Malaysia

-Thai border withthe two Malaysian brokers.

As I could not speak Malay, I didn’t say anything and sat quietly

along the way,

thinking if it’d be okay when I arrived at the border.It was about 6 pm when we arrived in a village nearby the border (Malaysia’s side). The two brokers

brought me up to a house of Malaysian farmer. The farmer and his family spoke to me in Malay. I said (inEnglish) that I could not speak Malay. Then, they spoke in Thai. I said that I could understand a little bitwhat they said. But, I could not speak Thai, too. The two brokers handed me over the hands of Malaysianfarmer and they turned back their way. A man who was supposed to be the son of farmer drove me toMalaysia-Thai border. When we arrived at the border, the son of Malaysian farmer handed me over to thehands of a Thai broker. The Thai broker picked me up by a motorbike. When we passed the border check

point, the Thai police neglected the two of us as if they didn’t see

that we were smuggled into Thailandillegally. The Thai broker transferred me to the hands of a Burmese broker whose brother was the broker inPenang whom I first met on the way. He asked me to pay him all 800 ringgits. I paid him all amount of money. I thought that h

e’d allowed me to sleep in his house for the night. But, he said, “You don’t have tosleep in my house tonight. I’ll drive you up to the place where you have to sleep. Get on the motorbike.”

Then, he drove motorbike in high speed and we arrived at a building that was supposed to be an office in afew minutes. Later, I knew that the building was the Thai immigration office.There was a lock-up cell in the Thai immigration office. I saw Burmese people who would return their homewere in cell. There were abou

t fifty Burmese. “You have t

o sleep in this cell

tonight,” said the broker. “

Theyare also going back to Burma like you. The truck that goes to Mae Sot comes on every other day. The truck came to immigration cell in

this morning. So, it’ll come here the da

y after tomorrow, then, you have to setforth to Mae Sot by the truck. I often come

here. Don’t worry. I’ll bring water

tomorrow,

the next morning.”

Then, he left. I felt something as I had never been in the jail or cell in my life. Simultaneously, I think that Iaccepted the situation as I wanted to go back home. Then, the feeling calmed down.While my mind was racing, a Mon broker opened the

cell’s

door so that I could enter into which. I did as heasked me to. The bad smell welcomed me as soon as I entered into the cell. I saw men, pregnant women andthe women with the children. Some children were only two or three years of age. It was very hot in the

crowd. The cell was very noisy with the voice of crying children and chattering. Some were Mon andBurmese and I saw some of Karen and Chin, too. I took a glance over all the places in the jail and looked fora place for my back as I knew that I had to spend for three days and two nights there. Then, I found a spacenear the window that was good enough for me to spend for the two nights there. I spread my longyi (most of Burmese men wear longyi instead of pant or jeans trousers) on the cement floor. After a few minutes, aBurmese broker and Thai staff entered into the cell and took us pictures. We had to fill the forms and pressfinger prints on which, to be deported to Burma.Now, my anxiety had disappeared as I was with the people who are in the same situation with me. I talkedwith three boys who were supposed to be about twenty five. They said that they worked in Malaysia for fiveyears and they had been in that cell for one week. And they also told me that they had already paid all themoney to the brokers in Kuala Lumpur to be deported to Burma. As their broker in KL had not given thespecific amount of money to the hands of the brokers who were working with the Thai immigration officersin Thai-Malaysia border, the Thai immigration officers had not transferred them to the hands of anotherbrokers who would transferred them into the Thai immigration in Mae Sot. So, the boys had been detained

in the cell for such a long time. When they called the broker’s number in KL, he didn’t answer the phone.

The boys told me all about their situation with sad faces and I knew that the boys were cheated by the broker

in KL. But, I didn’t tell them all about that as I didn’t want them to be shocked. I, myself, was so sad to

know all about their situation. If they encountered such a problem, I would be able to help them. But, fornow, I was in the same situation with others who were being detained in the cell and would be deported toBurma.In the next morning, the broker who brought me into the cell brought a bottle of drinking water and a box of fried rice. If I compared him with the other brokers, he was better than others. The jail authorities also fed usthree meals per day. The curry was only soup, mixed with the cucumber and gourd and a boiled duck egg.The rice was packed in a plastic bag. We had to eat the same curry in every meal. Some people could buyfried rice and some other better food from outside as they could save some amount of money before theyplanned to go back home in Burma. They could ask someone outside to buy food from outside. The onehelped them buy food from outside, but the detainees had to give him some extra money for his service.There were some other mobile food stalls outside the window. I still left forty five Malaysian ringgits (aboutUS$12), and some coins in my pocket. I bought Thai papaya salad and sticky rice through iron bars of thewindow. I remembered the days when I ate papaya salad and Thai noodle soup with the children when I

worked as a volunteer in children’s home in Thai

-Burma border in 2005.I took a bath in the bathroom as my whole body was sweating and I got bad smell. But, there was no soap.The bathroom was built together with toilet. I had to breathe the bad smell of toilet and there was no cup to

take water from the tank. But, I could use the cup in the toilet if I wanted. I didn’t know how the other

detainees took a bath and which cup they used when they did. So, I asked the mobile food stall owneroutside the window for an empty drinking water bottle made of plastic. I asked her to cut the bottle from themiddle part. She gave it to me through the window. Then, I could use the bottom part of the bottle as a cupwhen I took a bath. But, I d

idn’t have any soap. Any

way, I was fresh as I could take a bath.By this way, I had stayed in the Thai immigration cell for three days and two nights. In the afternoon of thethird day, a broker came into the cell and called each of our names. He asked us to stand the lines. Somedetainees asked him if their name were written in the list. I saw that the three boys were also asking about itto the broker in whose hands was the list of detainees who would be deported soon. The broker said with aloud voice,

“Is there anybody here whom the broker Ko Myo brought?” The detainees who were done by

broker Ko Myo raised their hands. Then, the broker checked the listed detainees one by one. My name also

was in the list. The three boys encouraged me, “Don’t worry, brother. You’ll have to go together those people and be deported soon.”

I asked them if their names were listed to be deported and they said, “No.” I

was very sorry to hear about that.The brokers and the immigration authorities separated the detainees into two groups

–

whose names werelisted to be deported and whose were not. The broker collected 200 Baht from each detainee. He said thatthe collected money would be used to buy food on the way. We had to stand the lines and were asked to get