Ivy Soon, Journalist
Although the stories were still overwhelmingly of sufferings and exploitations, it was also about young men and women taking charge and coping with adversities.
I knew the definitions, facts and statistics on refugees, but their stories only started to resonate when I began to understand how vulnerable and transient their lives are.
One of my first UNHCR assignments was to a makeshift refugee settlement in a secondary jungle outside the city. Most of the men were away at work, so we walked around and peered at the raised platforms that were their “rooms”. It’s their home, with cuttings of pretty starlets stuck on their walls. There was even a makeshift church set up.
The refugees that were there shared stories of fleeing their homes, of hard labour and menial pay and then being robbed of their hard-earned pay by predators in uniform. And they also say the local council could swoop in and demolish their structures any time, and the image of that wall of movie star posters in pieces flashed in my head.
When we left the settlement, it started raining and we were soaked through during the trek to our transport. I don’t remember anyone complaining.
Sometime after that, I visited Myammar refugees in a flat on touristy Jalan Bukit Bintang in the city centre. There were many people going in and out of that small flat but it was neat and tidy. More importantly, there was a sense of order. It was a base of sorts for a group of Myammar refugees, and they offer each other support in a foreign land while waiting for repatriation.
Although the stories were still overwhelmingly of sufferings and exploitations, it was also about young men and women taking charge and coping with adversities.
But my most intimate encounter with refugees was not while reporting on them, but at an art event where they shared their stories. During interviews with reporters, refugees usually recite the facts and their experiences. And though they do share their feelings, it is with a certain reserve.
During the art event, the refugees onstage narrated their experiences through various mediums. In that dark hall, the emotions were raw and their homesickness poignant.
There were stories of strength and resilience, but it was a story of fragility and vulnerability that was the most touching in its bare honesty.
It was that of a woman going mad in her head in a crowded room she shared with other refugees, gripped by fear because she couldn’t go home and couldn’t step out into the new strange city for fear of being grabbed. It was a stark story but I imagined myself in her situation, and thought I’d be broken too.
Name: Ivy Soon
Nationality: Malaysian
