I wanted to conclude
this body of work with an interview with someone
with full refugee status. Sheffield is the
only English city which has accepted Karen refugees
from camps in Thailand, and since 2005 there have a
been a few dozen families who have moved into our
area of Sheffield.
I met one of my Karen friends on the bus back from
the city, and she suggested Nay Htoo (his name’s
been changed), who arrived here in November 2007.
We met at his home, at the top of the hill leading
into the town centre.
Nay Htoo is fifty years old, and is married with
three children. He trained as a civil
engineer in Burma, but because he is Karen, wasn’t
able to get a professional job. He was working on a
road building programme, and in 1983 had to go into
Rangoon one day for work. That same evening, the
Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) attacked the
television station. The man who carried out the
attack had a similar family name to Nay Htoo, and
when he returned to his job, his boss made a joke
about it being Nay Htoo who’d carried out the
attack. This joke became rumour, and by 1984
he was being followed by the secret police, and had
to flee into the jungle, where he joined up with
the KNLA and Karen National Union (KNU), working as
a teacher.
The Karen were based in Marnerplaw, and had a
complete government-in-waiting – ‘an education
department, financial department, mining
department, ministry of the interior, all
departments like a real government, because the
Karen people are trying to establish their own
country’.
The area was under repeated attack by the Burmese
government, but was protected by the mountains
around it, and the difficulty of fighting in the
jungle. However, after 12 years, the area
fell, and Nay Htoo left to join Number 3 Brigade, a
mobile group, again living and fighting in the
jungle.
Altogether, he and his family spent twenty years in
the jungle, before deciding, in 2004, to leave the
country for the refugee camps in Thailand, hoping
for a better future for his children.
‘Being a teacher, even though Marnerplaw was
occupied I kept on teaching, but one thought was in
my mind that it wasn’t good for the future of my
children to keep on living like that. So
finally I heard that in the camps [in Thailand]
rights were available, we could obtain education,
and there were many NGOs working there in medical
care, education and so on. So I was thinking
that it was better to go back to the camp because
if I stay in the jungle I’m thinking about
education for my children, and for their future. So
we settled in the camp, and when we arrived in the
camp, I had no idea we would come to the UK because
when we arrived none of the refugees had the right
to travel to other countries. But in 2005-6 the
situation changed, various countries started
looking at humanitarian grounds and had a policy to
accept refugees – the United States was first.’
Seven months after his first interview with the
British Embassy, Nay Htoo and his family arrived in
the UK in November 2007.
Nay Htoo has been able to receive healthcare here,
his children are at school and he has started an
engineering course at college.
‘My intention is to achieve if possible another
degree here. But sometimes I think I’m getting old,
I’m 50 already, I’m not sure that even if I get a
degree, if I’ll be able to get a job. Maybe
it will be a benefit for my people back in the
Karen state.
‘Unless Burma gains democracy we can’t go back at
all, because the situation is getting worse.
‘I am extremely grateful to be here. I want to say
thank you to the Queen, the Prime Minister, the
Government of Sheffield and the benefit
centre. We have been given every opportunity
– freedom, medical care and education. Thank
them. I will pray that God will pour out tremendous
blessing on the UK and that it will be a great
nation.’
Nay Htoo asked for his face not to be shown, as he
still has family in Burma who he is afraid for.
This photograph shows his Karen-English dictionary,
that he used to teach in the jungles.