I find being away from the country for a short time is always good. It gives you a chance to re-focus and re-invigorate. It also allows you to step back from the hustle of your life in your homeland to consider, from a detached position, the direction of your own life and the perspectives which envelope it.

You will inevitably end up appreciating the small things you have, and resolving to make things better for yourself and others; or happen, for things you do not have.

On March 6, I had the rare privilege of visiting a refugee camp in Thailand, one not normally accessible to visitors - the Tham Hin Temporary Shelter ("Tham Hin")

Tham Hin is located about 12km from the Burma-Thailand border. It is a remote area of 40 rais or 18 acres nestled in the middle of several hills. The journey into Tham Hin is difficult, bumpy and uncomfortable, over long, narrow and winding dirt roads.

Along the way in, one would occasionally see dilapidated wooden houses and huts, and a spatter of human activity either in the fields or tending cows; otherwise, the area surrounding the roads felt deserted and uninhabited, giving us the sense of entering into another world altogether.

Tham Hin sits on a ground of orange coloured dirt sand. As we alighted from the vans, a slight breeze blew up across the hot ground, rendering our faces and bodies sandy and dusty. We were immediately greeted by a large number of children - painfully scrawny, dirty, roguish, barefooted and looking somewhat bewildered by our arrival.

All of them have similar haircuts, with their heads shaven much in the manner of Buddhist monks. Some are mischievous and friendly enough to try and get close to us. Those who do quickly establish physical contact with some of us and become playful. Their body language appeared to say - "Hi, thanks for coming. Let me show you my world."

Shelters for Karen people

And so we went to see Tham Hin.

Tham Hin is one of the nine "temporary shelters" in four provinces of Thailand - the four provinces being Ratchaburi, Kanchanaburi, Tak and Maehongson. Tham Hin shelters the Karen people who are one of the many ethnic minority groups in Burma.

For the Karen's own historical and cultural reasons, they have taken up arms under the Karen National Union ("KNU") to struggle against the Burmese government for their own state and independence.

Up until 1997, there were some Karens who lived in about 50 villages situated along the Tenasserim river valley in the Tenasserim Division of Burma ("Tenasserim Karens"). These villages were about 15 km from the Burma-Thailand border.

In 1997, the Burmese military government, through its State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), decided to launch a major offensive against the KNU at the Mergui-Tavoy district.

Within approximately a month and by the end of February 1997, the SLORC managed to occupy and overrun the KNU's No 4 Brigade headquarters at the Mergui-Tavoy district. The harshness of occupation greatly affected the Tenasserim Karens and forced them to flee from their homes and relocate. This worked to the benefit of the SLORC as it cut off a substantial civilian Karen population and prevented then from providing assistance to the Karen resistance. These Karens then moved towards three different passes at the Burma-Thailand border for safe passage and in order to seek asylum in Thailand.

Between the months of March-May 1997, the Tenasserim Karens stayed temporarily in three camps close to the Burma-Thai border. These camps were about 2 km from the border and were known respectively as the Bo Wii Camp, Huay Sut Camp and Pu Muang Camp ("Three Camps").

From about May 16 - June 16, 1997, as it was still not safe for the Karens to return home to their villages, the Three Camps were permitted by the Thai authorities to gradually relocate to a place within Thailand known as the "Tham Hin Temporary Shelter" in the Ratchaburi province.

Whilst international law categorises persons like the Karen people who are fleeing from persecution in Burma as "refugees", Thailand however does not; hence the use of the term "temporary shelter" in place of "refugee shelter".

The term "temporary shelter" is used to denote that Tham Hin is merely a place of temporary respite for the Karen people, who will be repatriated once the situation in Burma is conducive for repatriation.

Growing population

Further, Thailand will only allow Burmese persons to stay at temporary shelters if there is actual evidence of violence and armed conflict in the villages from which they were fleeing. It cannot be a mere general assertion and Thailand makes it a point to investigate these facts before approving such settlers. As such, there are more than two million Burmese refugees living in Thailand but not at temporary shelters as they do not "qualify" for the same under Thailand's aforesaid definition.

When Tham Hin was originally built in 1997, it was meant to cater for 4,500 people. Seven years on, the number of persons living in Tham Hin has grown to more than 9,000, which consists of more than 1,650 family units/households. The birth rate in Tham Hin is an average of 25 children a month. As a result, land space per head has gradually reduced and ever so often, requests are made to the authorities for more space.

The problem of nationality of new babies has yet to be resolved. Thailand would give the child a birth certificate and recognize him as Burmese. The family of the child would say he is Karen. Burma would not know.

The shelters at Tham Hin are small and made of wood and bamboo. The settlers regularly have to replace the structures of their shelters with new wood and bamboo due to damage caused by pests and the elements.

Although cramped, each shelter usually houses up to six members in two storeys. The demands of having to house many persons in limited spaces leads to innovation in the building structures of the shelters. There are no mattresses and living conditions are squalid. Doorless toilets are found below each shelter.

There is no electricity and water is pumped from a stream. Although the settlers are allowed to have radios, contact with the outside world is minimal as no television sets are available. There is an imposed curfew commencing at 9 each night, during which time no settler is permitted to venture more than 300m from Tham Hin. The penalty, if caught, is repatriation back to Burma.

As is expected, without being able to leave Tham Hin, there exists an income generation problem and even worse, lifelessness. The settlers have inevitably lead an inactive and unavoidably unproductive existence at Tham Hin since 1997, doing naught but wait for the day that the Thai authorities deem it time for them to return to Burma.

This constant uncertainty and sense of being on tenterhooks is likely the cause of common health problems such as hypertension and high blood pressure amongst the aged at Tham Hin. Due to space constraints, cremation remains the only method for disposing of the dead, irrespective of religious and cultural beliefs.

Tham Hin Society

To its credit and despite the purported "temporary" nature of the settlers' residence, Tham Hin is now more than a shelter, having transformed itself into a society of persons with a social structure. It is run and managed by two elected committees of persons who themselves stay at Tham Hin - the "Camp Elder Advisory Board" ("CEAB") and the "Working Committee" ("WC"). The CEAB is made up of a number of elders who render advice on important matters affecting the Karen people. Further, there are, functioning under the purview of the WC, separate sub-committees on education, security, social and health welfare, warehouse affairs, public affairs, camp affairs, judicial and legal matters. The WC represents the settlers of Tham Hin and it negotiates as well as advocates with the authorities on matters affecting Tham Hin.

Education forms an important part of the WC's work with assistance being provided by international and domestic non-governmental organisations and civil society groups. There is a school, library and science laboratory at Tham Hin, and about 150 teachers for approximately 3,500 students.

The teachers are paid a small subsidy by non-governmental organisations. The English language, the Thai language and basic Mathematics are taught, and there is a compound just outside the science laboratory for physical education which is included as a part of the curriculum. Physical education is led by the "Right To Play", a non-governmental organisation. No formal education is provided in respect of the Karen culture, practices or way of life.

To ease the ennui of life at Tham Hin, the WC arranges social and cultural activities for the settlers. There is also a hospital for healthcare. Extremely serious crimes are referred to the Thai police whilst less serious crimes are settled internally by the Judicial Board which deals with judicial and legal matters. There is no prison in Tham Hin.

The diet in Tham Hin is limited and to a large extent does not even meet basic humanitarian standards. It is not a balanced diet, and reflects the supposedly "temporary" nature of the Karen people's stay at Tham Hin. Rice forms the staple diet of the settlers, and occasionally vegetables, but no meat or fish. The basic supplies provided to Tham Hin by various non-governmental organisations and civil society groups include yellow bean, cooking oil, prawn paste, salt, charcoal, firewood, chilies, green beans, soap, clothing, blankets, mats and mosquito nets.

NGOs and civil society groups

What is immediately apparent when one visits Tham Hin is the number of varied international and domestic NGOs who attempt, insofar as they are able, to provide assistance and aid in the form of basic sustenance to the settlers. It can safely be said that but for the NGOs, there would be no sustainable life in Tham Hin. The government of Thailand does not feature in providing any such sustenance, except for safe passage through the border and shelter space in the form of the land on which Tham Hin is situated.

The aid provided to Tham Hin may be divided into three categories consisting of (1) primary health and sanitary, (2) education and (3) food, shelter and relief. There are no less than at least 20 NGOs working at Tham Hin.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) oversees Tham Hin and gives legal protection to its settlers. The UNHCR plays an important role in negotiating with the authorities of Thailand to open the border and provide safe passage for the settlers and others in similar situations.

In substance much like globalisation, the military junta in Burma has pushed the boundaries of sovereign Thailand further and it has contributed to forcing this world to become more of a borderless one.

As evident, the natural reaction is the provision of aid by humanitarian groups such as the aforesaid NGOs in the name of human rights and the protection of refugees. The fact that these groups are diverse international and domestic groups reaffirms the interdependency, indivisibility and universality of human rights principles and standards. In this, the importance of such groups in a world which is becoming more open and borderless is emphasized.

Tham Hin exposes the underlying tension in the world today where all over, varying states and countries are attempting to control their borders in the name of national security; yet there are some who find themselves forcibly "influxed" or "invaded" by persons of another state or country, or by the international aid which comes with that.

The Prime Minister of Thailand's support for the Burmese military government is well known. The PM and his associates have business interests in Burma and presently appear to not want to jeopardise the same. The PM's company, Shin Satellite and Shin Corporation owns iPSTAR, a US$350 million broadband satellite, which was granted a concession to install 5,000 satellite receiving stations in Burma's rural areas. So far, the company has completed 1,000 such installations.

Karen State within a state

If Thailand, the United Nations and the international community as a whole exerts overwhelming pressure on the Burmese junta to cease the human rights violations in Burma or perhaps even overthrow the current junta, then maybe the said "influx" or "invasion" into sovereign Thailand would stop. The root cause of the Karen people's problems must be addressed instead of merely remedying the effects. That is the language of human rights advocates.

I felt, when leaving Tham Hin, that a half-day visit was not enough for me to truly experience the conditions and life at Tham Hin. It would have been nice if we could have stayed over at Tham Hin to live and experience a bit of the settlers' lives.

Tham Hin is not a perfect solution for the Karen people and is far from ideal. It is not even a basic solution from a human rights perspective. But it is, nevertheless, a symbol of man's struggle for survival and his steadfastness.

Ironically, it is only in a "temporary shelter" in Tham Hin, Thailand, and not in their homeland of Burma, where the Karen people have been able to enjoy peace, and in a sense, have their own Karen State.

Coming back home, Tham Hin to me underscored the simple and small things in life.