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GNA Thailand: Q&A with Michael Booker, Field Officer, Mae Sariang Field Unit, Thailand

Global Needs Assessment, 9 October 2008

"They want to see an improvement in their lives"

You work regularly in Mae Ra Ma Luang and Mae La Oon refugee camps, two of the most remote camps in Thailand for refugees from Myanmar. What's it like working in these two camps?

It's a big challenge. Every day is different. I find it incredibly rewarding and I learn a lot every day from the refugees – their resilience and strength. They are on the margins of society and they manage to cope with the resources they have.

How good a job do you think UNHCR and our NGO partners are doing in meeting the refugees' needs?

On the whole, UNHCR and the NGOs co-operate very well. Most of the basic material needs of the people in the camps are met. There are some gaps, but often the needs are more intangible, such as freedom. The biggest restriction on the refugees is that they are not allowed to move outside the camp for employment or education. But even if they were able to move outside the camp, refugees are often still marginalized. Their access to jobs, their access to fair pay on equal terms is often not available. So even if the camps were open, I wouldn't say it would be an easy transition to freedom.

How do the services in the camp compare to where the refugees came from?

Most of the refugees were displaced first from their home villages in Myanmar and lived in the jungle or in temporary accommodation for long periods without any access to a permanent school or permanent hospital. So when they come to the camp and see these facilities provided by NGOs and supported by UNHCR, it's certainly an improvement.

We've been in the camps talking to refugees, mainly Karen refugees, who are very reluctant to complain. But after you talk to them for a while, they mention some very basic needs, like lack of clothes, lack of latrines, lack of pots and pans in their homes. Why do you think they say everything is fine, but they seem to be lacking some basic things?

Perhaps it's all relative. When they first get to a refugee camp, it's fine that their absolute basic needs are being met, that people are receiving a food ration that meets basic international requirements. But after a prolonged period of time, people have aspirations; they want to feel something is changing in their lives. They want an improvement in services, which is not an unreasonable demand.

When the camp first opened, maybe one latrine per three families was an acceptable ratio, and probably met international standards, but now people are saying, "this isn't acceptable for my needs."

It was interesting to me that they held back and it took a bit of probing to come up with what were pretty basic needs from our perspective. Maybe it's the Karen culture not to complain. Complaining may be seen as a sign of disloyalty to the culture, a lack of stoicism, a sign of weakness, so we had to get past those barriers, but in the end they had some reasonable demands.

What kind of improvements would you yourself like to see in the camps?

With a large population of 30,000 people between the two camps, the road access requires a great deal of improvement. The (unpaved) road is the lifeline, literally, for people who are being medically evacuated from the camp, and we have had people die on the road, people just haven't survived the two and a half hours or even six hours in the rainy season in order to get to hospital.

Greater freedom for refugees to work outside the camps and access to the Thai education system would be a benefit to Thailand. Whenever I'm in the camp, I sense there is this squandered chance to use this human potential. One can improve the tangible aspects of the camp, but at the same time, one has to work on the intangibles, which is to tap into this human potential.

Where do UNHCR and its partners go from here?

The challenge ahead is to ensure that there is a proper asylum system to allow new arrivals to the camp to formally access camp services more quickly than at the moment. There are a large number of new arrivals, and UNHCR's position is that the Provincial Admissions Board (a Thai government body on which UNHCR has a seat) is the only method of determining who is a refugee and who isn't. So one can always improve the services, but I also think improvement to the access to the services – having a proper refugee status determination procedure – is crucial. Not everyone who comes to the camp is a refugee. A lot are, but some come for other reasons than seeking refuge. Thailand does not have responsibility for everyone who comes to the camp. There has to be a reliable and prompt mechanism for sorting out who is a refugee and who is not a refugee.

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