Chch woman bound for refugee camp

Press, 11 January 1986, Page 6

Chch woman bound for refugee camp

Packing to go to odd destinations is nothing new for a former Christchurch bank clerk, Ms Judith Calvert.

Ms Calvert will leave for the Khao I Dang refugee resettlement camp in Thailand on Tuesday. She has worked there for two years co-ordinating a sewing programme for the Khmer people in the camp. The camp jointly run by the Thai military and the United Nations, was established five years ago. It is near Thailand’s eastern border close to the town of Aranyaparathet, and was set up to give a temporary home to people waiting to be resettled In other countries.

However, the camp has become a permanent home for some families who have been there awaiting resettlement since it opened in 1979.

“A lot of people don’t have a great deal of hope of resettling in another country,” Ms Calvert said. “The camp is getting smaller, but it’s getting harder for some people to leave because they are unskilled. The skilled people have already gone,” Most refugees went to the United States, although Canada, Australia and Japan also took several.

About 28,000 people live in the camp. Ms Calvert said about 7000 of those were there illegally. “It’s a closed camp, but people come in to get away from the fighting on the border. They are being allowed to stay there at the moment, but no-ones know what will happen to them.”

Ms Calvert said the camp was not overcrowded.

“I live quite comfortably with three others, in a wooden house on stilts,” she said. “It’s very hot, and having the house on stilts helps the air to circulate. It also keeps it out of the floods in the rainy season.” People ate well in the camp. Some people grew vegetables but most of the food was trucked in from Bangkok. A family moving out of camp always made Ms Calvert reflect on how lucky New Zealanders were. “A family of six will take

all their possession down to the bus in two cardboard boxes,” she said. “They have a cooking pot, they might have some food, and some old clothing.” Ms Calvert started working at the camp after doing a disciple training course on the Youth with a Mission training ship, Anastasis. Before that she spent two summers working, at Antarctica.

“There have definitely been differences — if only the temperatures,” she said.