Visiting the Past: The Journey to Thailand
How old were you when you traveled to Thailand? I was seventeen years old. My brothers were fifteen and my sister was 10. I have three sisters and two brothers. The youngest maybe like 7 years old.
Why did it take so long to leave Laos? We lived in Northern Laos. We would have to pass walking maybe one month or two or three months. We had the children. We had no food. That’s why my dad said it’s too hard to walk to go to Thailand.
When you did finally leave, how long did it take? To walk through Laos, maybe like one month to Thailand. The jail in Thailand, three years.
How did you know it was safe to go to Thailand? It was a hit or miss situation. If we were happening to watching the news and happened to catch an announcement from the government saying they’ll help the refugees, we would know it was the best time to cross over. But if we do not get that news, we cannot go.
So you saw a report on T.V.? Because the reporter knows the guy in the city right? The Hmong Laos in Laos country because they know them and they know me and us too. So they can text the American reporters to go to the jungle to tell us “You can go to Thailand and the UN is there to help you. Your country is a communist and the UN cannot help you. If you need help you need to go to Thailand.”
How did the reporter know how to find you? Because the Hmong in U.S.A right. They came to Laos. Our cousin. My cousins who live here they came to search us, our whereabouts, where we live, how we lived in Laos. When they visit and came to Laos they didn’t see us. And then, met some people that have to buy rice in the village then they know that we live there. They tell the people to come to tell us. If we see that guy, we’re very happy.
Was it easy to seek status as a refugee? They say you are not the refugee; you look like the people immigrated to our country because you don’t have anything. Right now we don’t see the war in your country. You just stay in the Jungle and look like the bad people. They did not see us as hard workers. They felt that we just wanted an easy way out.
So how did you finally make it as a refugee? We go to the UN, they help us because we tell the story of why we came here because we can’t live in Laos because of the war American came and need us to help them and the UN they have to do the ID. I’ll show you this is what we have in the camp in Thailand. If we don’t have this one we cannot come into the United States.
Can your other family members in Laos come to U.S.A. still? Oh right now they can’t come here because the UN they don’t help them anymore.