Living in the Camps in Thailand-Tony Yang-January 28, 2002

TYANG102,Refugee Camps,Tony Yang,January 28, 2002,Transcribed by Deandrea and Riley

TY: Good morning, thank you for having me today. My name is Tony Yang. I work
for the school district of La Crosse, as a home school community coordinator at Hogan.
Today I'm sharing my experiences at the camp, with some of you today here. Actually, I
was born in Laos in 1973 and in 1977, my family escaped from Laos because of the
Vietnam War. And we fled to Thailand in 1977.
TY: That's were my experiences with the camp started, in 1977. When my family got to the
refugee camps in Thailand in 1977, I lives in the camp for 10 years. So my experience there was
horrible. Just because of thewas the camp was set up. The refugee camp was established in
1976, by the UnitedNation, with the help of the Untied States of America. The camp was
established to help Hmong refugees or Southeast Asian refugees, who would try to escape from
the Vietnam war.
TY: My family came then in 1977. My first day at the camp was so shocking, just
because of the fact the camp was designed, also the camp was fenced with the barbed
wire around 25 feet tall. The barbed wire fence was there to keep the refugees inside, so
they could not go out and come in as they please. Anyone who needs to go out of the
camp has to have special permission from the Thai government. There was rules and
regulations as far as for the refugee people in the camp. Again, my family moved in
1977 and I was born in 1973, so I was about 4 years old. I didn't remember anything
about Laos. I live in camp for 10 years, but I knew a whole lot about the camp, because
half of my life I grew up in the camp. The camp was probably about the size of Holmen,
WI. Its not very large, but it has about 55,000 people in the camp. So if you can imagine
the size of Holmen with 55,000 people in there it was crowded. There weren't a lot of
spaces for people to live.
TY: The Thai government had to build the houses in rows. What we
call them are row houses. Like long stretch of houses. In rows, so that would save them
some space, because there wasn't a lot of space in a camp. The camp was broken down
into nine quarters. You know there's nine quarters in a camp. And people that came to the
came earlier would live in the quarter one and then the second wave of people would live
in the quarter 2 and on up to nine quarters. The condition in a camp was so
terrible just because of the fact that it was crowded. There weren't any hospitals in a
camp, there was only two clinics. The clinics were there to see people that are very
serverly injured or sick. Just because you have a cold, that doesn't mean you can go to
the clinic, they wont take you, you know unless you are really very sick, then they will
take you. Again there was no hospitals in the camp, there was no sanitation which
means that you know the condition in there was so bad that when people have to use the
bathroom they have to go find some place else like outside of the camp or around the
fence of the camps for them to go use the toilet. Garbage was everywhere, there was no
landfills for people to dump their garbage. So people dump their garbage right by their
house, wherever they can find a spot. It was dirty in the camp.
TY: Life in a camp was likepeople just living for today. People don't even know whats going to
happen tomorrow. A lot of people dying every day from hunger, from diseases and for a lot of
reasons. Some of the things that I think was a bad experience for a lot of people was just
because of the fact that foods were given 3 times per week. So there wasn't enough food for
people to eat. When you talk about 3 times per week for food distribution, they can only give
out so much per person and for a large family, now hmong people usually have large
families, because there wasn't enough food. A lot of times its hard for a larger family to
manage their foods and making sure that their foods are enough or last until the next
one comes. So the food wasn't enough for the people to eat until the next one comes
around.
TY: Also, when we talked about the camp there's a lot of kinds in the camp and
children don't go to school all day. Children go to what is called Make Shift School,
which means that children only go to school half a day. Like some kids will go to the
morning school and some kids will go to the afternoon school. There were fleet markets in
the camp and people can go and shop there. People can go there and trade. There weren't
a lot of job opportunities in the camp, for example most parents stay home and baby-sit
some of children will go to school. There weren't a lot of job opportunities because of
the fact that it was a refugee camp.

TYANG202,Day to Day in the Camps,Tony Yang, January 31, 2003,Transcribed by Gareth and Dustin

TY: I went to school every day okay, and I went to morning school. I went to school there we
learned Thai language. We learned Laotian language, and we also learned Hmong. Part of the
time we learned Hmong in school too, but most of the time we learned Thai language. You know
whenever you go out to the streets I mean you always hear children cry. You know kids playing
on the street. You know sometimes kids only have one pair of shorts, they don't even have a
shirt. They don't even have shoes, or pants. Kids just have a shirt on running on the streets. There
are kids everywhere because it is so crowded. Everybody was jammed in the camp. And you
know that was the most bizarre thing because you know kids get dirty there wasn't enough water, I
mean you had to get in line in order to get water. And you have to buy jars to keep your water in.
TY: It was very difficult for a lot of larger families again because of the fact about water, and food.
People get sick more because they don't have enough food to eat. You know you don't have
enough water to bathe everyone, so large families struggled. My family, we had a large family
and we struggled a lot just because of the fact that my parents could not go out of the camp and
work and earn some extra income and help us. So what we would do was as far as us kids
concern we went to school, half a day so my parents basically sit at home and watched the baby,
washing our clothes. You know doing those things sitting around talking to their neighbors. You
know people don't have anything to do people sit and wait for food to come, and if the food
doesn't come people would starve. And again the refugees don't have control over anything that
happens in the camps.
TY: When the Thai government set up the camp there were rules and regulations that the
refugees had to follow. I mean strict rules and regulations to follow. Every house in the camps had
to have their lights out at 9:00 pm. And you have to have to go to bed at 9:00 pm and you had
to be quiet. And if you were not quiet there would be Tai guards that would go around the camps
from houses to houses and check for people that are still up and talking, and if they don't have their
lights out. Thai guards would put you in prison. Or you would have to pay a heavy fine for
violating the camps rules. The rule not only against Hmong people but also against older people
and sometimes people that are sick, people that have people that is really sick and can't put their
lights out. So they can care for their individual.
TY: People struggled because there were rules put on us, sometimes people have to go by
what people tell them to do because if you don't chances are that there are consequences that
you have to pay for. I know that there are people trying to get out of the camp and find some
jobs. Do some extra income to help their family well you know people get beat up for doing that.
People get beat up everyday for trying to help their family out by doing some extra income. And
if they get caught they might be put in prison for three to five years. If you don't want to go to
prison you have to pay a heavy fine. And people don't have a lot of money so when people get
money to help you out when you have the money.
TY: So most of the time people will not get out but once in a while people that really feel intact to
help their family because their family was in a crisis. You know they do try to get out of the camp
and do what they can to help out their family and sometimes people don't get lucky and you know
they get caught, and get beat up and every day something happens in the camp. Again the
camp is so small and there is a lot of people. So chances are something is going to happen ok
and things happen every minute, things happen every hour, and things happen every day. Like
you only live for today and you never live for tomorrow because you don't know if you are going
to die tomorrow from disease. Die from tomorrow from hunger and you know people don't have a
future in the camps because you get stuck in a camp that don't give you any choices don't give
you a lot of opportunity.
TY: So do people do, they sit around, hoping that people will hope that something will happen
to their lives, and people are hoping that the Thai government will give them the opportunity to
go out of the camp ok. And when people are old enough so that people get enough jobs and
money to come and help their families but the opportunity never comes. And once you are in a
camp you are locked in and that's why a lot of people make choices to come to this country. And
get out of the camp when people come from Laos to the camp they did not know that the camp
was going to be that bad. People thought the camp was going to be a camp to help people and
give opportunity to people. People thought the camp was there for people to start a new life ok
and start a new family and people thought the camp was there to give them opportunity to get as
far as to make something out of their life. It wasn't for their way.
TY: When people got to the camp, people die just because of the fact that they feel opportunity
less. They didn't people were giving them enough opportunity people growing up especially the
elders when you can't do a lot for your family people get stressed ok and when people get
stressed people will not get trusted because they couldn't do anything or their family and you
know especially grandparents and parents. See their kids die on a daily bases you know
hundreds of people dying you know a year from hunger and see a lot of people when they make
the choice to come to this country feel a whole lot better. That they were out of the refugee camp
because when they come to this country the opportunity is given to them. And their kids get a
chance to go to school and a lot of people went back to Laos because they did not want to live in
the camps because it was so horrible and so most people went back to Laos and some people
stay there because they didn't have a choice or a opportunity so the camp was not in very good
condition.

TYANG402,Food in the Camps and Coming to the U.S.,Tony Yang,January 28, 2002,Transcribed by Nick and Christian

SC: Did anything happen to your family in Laos?
TY: Ah, yes actually I lost one sister in the camp um she was born in the
camp and she was the youngest in our family and because she was young my
mom didn't have alot of food to eat when she was pregnet and um she was,
she was born under weight plus the fact that a when she was born my mom
didn't have no milk you know my mom breast feed her, and she didn't have
enough food to eat and she didn't have enough food to eat and she didn't
enough milk to feed her um and she was tiny she was very very tiny ah
she only last um 3 months and then you know she past away so um that was
very tragic to happen to my family but I have alot of cousins and
relatives that lost alot of a members in their family due to starvations
or diseases.
TY: Next question. Did people treat you well besides like beating and not giving
you enough food what else did they do? Some of the things the Thai government
setup in the camp or will be uh the opportunity for you to go to school that's a good thing
but you know besides the beating and all the farms and people that
violate the rules also there's rules for kids cant go near the fence if
they see you about five feet away from the fence the automatically
assume that you were trying to escape. Even you haven't done anything
and you just happened to be in a bad situation where you backup near the
fence if you were playing games or chasing each other and then you were
maybe five feet away from the fence and if the guard see you, you know
had any attention he's gonna assume that you trying to look for
something ah he will assume that you were trying to escape you know even
with childrens and adults because sometimes how they make their money
too that's how they make their living you know if you know your son was
trying to escape you know you an we we an we cant him so you have to pay
his money or well about him in prison. So you know that's how the guards
make their money too so a you know again he signs all the meetings and
touching another little things to a you know get you in trouble.
SC: How did you feel when you were in the camp?
TY: Actually for my parents the were very excepted about because the
camps an they uncertain about leaving but we didn't know what what
america was like an a but for me I was very happy that the family
left the camp because of the fact that you know have a whole life to
live an I cant spend the rest of my life in the camp before my family
like my parents because their older and you know even though there's
much older given the chance you know they don't... cant go to school ok
but I feel very good because I knew we were on to something that were
that's uncertain but at least were getting out of the camp. an were
getting out of the terrible things I saw every day or a all the beating
I saw in the camp um an getting out of the camps before eating the some
foods over and over again an it make me feel good a also my a parents
weren't sure about what's going to happen to us ok but I knew they were
glad to that we got out of the camp because of the condition of the
camps an what's happening in the camp.
SC: Do you have any friends in the camp like did you meet anybody?
TY: Oh I have alot of friends in the camp ok I.. I have alot of friends in
the camp because of the fact that you know that you know they were
crowded. ah half of the day you didn't do anything ok basically you stay
home half of the day so basically stayin home playing games, and meet
alot of friends and meet alot of people so I have alot of friends.
SC: Did you come straight to La Crosse?
TY: Yes, my family came straight to La Crosse in 1987 so as I
mentioned earlier my family came in 1987 wait 1977, and we left the camp
in 1987 so I lived in a camp for two years um again when I came here I
was 13 so I lived in a camp for half of my life ok Im 29 now so half of
my life I lived in a camp k and you um know I would say I was very luck
and you know for my sisters and brothers you know were very luck to cuz
we got out of the camp without being real sick or you know like other
people didn't have a chance to come here you know they die before they
ever did their family make a decision to come to this country.
SC: What is the most different memory you had about refugee camps?
TY: It's about me waking up in the middle of the night wanting to go to
the bathroom like in wisconsin you can just open the door and the
bathroom was there okay you knew you wakeup in the middle of the night
wanting to go to the bathroom and you have to travel you know like a
mile before you can get in the bushes by the fence in trying to make
sure nobody sees you okay and then that would be your toilet spot okay
and that was the most horrible things for me,being a younger kid when
you are afraid at night being afraid you got the dark and you know you
gotta go out in the middle of the night you know looking for a bathroom
lookin for a good spot okay so that was one of the horrible things that
I'd never want to happen to me again or my kids , question .
SC: Are there any more refugee camps in Laos ?
TY: Yes, right now all the camps are closed except there is a temple camp
and the temple camp is for people who do not pass the screening test to
come to this country okay an um the a temple camp is thereto help those
people with disease to overcome whatever disease those people have or
that they aquire as part of thier a um disease from the camp so all of
the camps are closed except one an thats the temple camp that is still
having some refugees