Safehaven Singapore

Singapore—a safehaven in the past, but what about the future?
Written by Beth, for Advocates for Refugees - Singapore

The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically tightened borders and has made travel between countries incredibly challenging, if not impossible. For most of us, this means a year and a half of not being able to travel freely and being separated from loved ones. For refugees forcibly displaced by war and violence, however, crossing borders is not just a necessity, but a matter of life or death.

Compared to 40 years ago, not only has displacement grown in scale, it also takes a longer time for refugees to be resettled in a safe “third” country. In the last three years, the number of refugees who have spent more than 5 years in exile has jumped from 7 million to a whopping 11.9 million. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), out of the 20.4 million refugees of concern in 2019, less than 1% are resettled every year.

The last great refugee resettlement occurred after the Vietnam war, when two million Vietnamese fled their country. By the end of 1991, more than half of Vietnamese refugees had been resettled in the US, with the rest resettled in Europe, Australia, and other countries. The world saw its governments work together to protect the human rights of refugees.

From 1977 to 1996, Hawkins Road Refugee Camp in Singapore, a former British military barracks, also hosted Vietnamese refugees. Refugees were allowed to stay in the camp under the condition that they would be resettled in a third “safe” country, and would stay in Singapore for no longer than three months. I spoke to Lea Tran, a Hoa Vietnamese refugee who has since resettled in the United States, about her experience living in the camp for 12 days.

Vietnamese refugee camp Hawkins Road 1986 - Registered Tourist Guides Association of Singapore

Vietnamese refugee camp Hawkins Road 1986 - Registered Tourist Guides Association of Singapore

View of Vietnamese Refugee Camp at Hawkins Road - National Archives Singapore

View of Vietnamese Refugee Camp at Hawkins Road - National Archives Singapore

Can you tell us about your experience as a child refugee?

I was devastated when I left Vietnam. I was about 16, and while old enough to understand the situation, I was still unable to grasp the magnitude of the journey I was about to take. The journey was tough and arduous, 500 of us climbed onto a boat that was not sea-worthy, and sailed out into the unknown ocean, with the knowledge that there was a high probability we would perish at sea. I had never even been on a boat, let alone one that was supposed to be crossing the ocean.

The pirates were the most terrifying. We encountered pirates four times during our journey, they physically assaulted and robbed us of all our belongings. They also destroyed all our food and water, and left us with a broken engine. We had no choice but to drift aimlessly, and this was just the beginning of the unknown journey of being a refugee.

Luckily we were rescued, and landed in Malaysia. However, we got pushed back out into the sea, as the country did not want to take us in, they were already overcrowded by other refugees. We somehow found Indonesia, and got accepted there. I was processed through four different camps in Indonesia, before being sent to Singapore.

The [Indonesian] camps were difficult to live in, they were overcrowded and unsanitary. Some of the islands had been uninhabited previously, and we had to build our own shelters and wells.

How did you feel about landing in Singapore?

When we landed in Singapore, it was as if I could finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Hawkins Road Camp didn’t feel like a refugee camp, but a haven. Unlike other camps, we were given freedom to leave the camp and explore the city, we could go shopping, and some people even worked small jobs to earn money. I felt that Singapore had really opened up their country to refugees and made us feel human again. I no longer felt like a refugee with no rights.

Do you have any recollection of your interactions with Singaporeans? What did you think their perceptions were towards refugees?

It was easier for me to interact with Singaporeans, as I was able to speak Mandarin, Cantonese, and Teochew with the locals.

The most memorable for me was when three college students volunteered to take me on a day out to the zoo! They treated me like their little sister and I felt very pampered. I had an instant connection with them, and had so much fun. From my experiences with them, I felt Singaporeans were very compassionate and had a great heart for people less fortunate than them.

While I was only in Singapore for twelve days, it was the most memorable twelve days of my life. I even told my dad, “I’m going to make lots of money so I can retire in Singapore!” Of course, I had no idea how expensive retiring in Singapore was going to be. I can’t retire here [in Singapore], but I was lucky enough to come back 40 years later, in 2019. I’m glad I was able to come back and visit the old campsite.

Refugees at Hawkins Road Camp - Facebook group - Vietnamese Boat People Refugee Camp

Refugees at Hawkins Road Camp - Facebook group - Vietnamese Boat People Refugee Camp

Unfortunately, by the 1990s, third countries started to default on their commitment to resettle refugees. Hawkins Road Camp soon turned into a camp for rejected asylum seekers, and many refused to leave voluntarily. The threat of repatriation also caused refugees to protest to the UNHCR, conduct hunger strikes, and even attempt suicide. In 1998, in parliament, after speaking about the government’s tough measures against illegal immigration, then-Minister of Home Affairs Mr. Wong Kan Seng addressed the issue of refugees as follows: “… for the same reason that we are a small country with limited natural resources, Singapore is also not in a position to accept anyone who claims to be a refugee, whether he is an economic or a political refugee. We could otherwise be overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of people who want to come here and claiming themselves to be refugees.” He added, “… in the past, we have been kind enough to agree to take in Vietnamese refugees with third country guarantees for resettlement. And for years, we were saddled with them because these third countries which agreed to resettle them did not honour their guarantees. Eventually, when the camp had to be closed, these Vietnamese had to be sent back. We have learnt our lesson and we will no longer accept any refugee even if a third country promises to resettle them."

Today, the political will of many wealthy countries to take in refugees has waned. Their low resettlement quotas and immense bureaucratic obstacles leave millions of refugees in uncertain, vulnerable, and exploitative situations. Less-wealthy countries are also left with the responsibility of providing protection and care to the refugees in need. In 2020, the US took in only 11,814 refugees, a sharp reduction from 85,000 in 2016. Because of the pandemic, Australia’s admission of refugees fell by 3000. The European Union has also strong-armed Turkey into taking back refugees who have crossed irregularly into Europe. As a result, refugees in countries such as Malaysia, Lebanon, and Turkey can wait for almost 17 years before they are resettled in a third “safe” country.

As one of the wealthiest states in the world, Singapore’s annual contribution of US$60,000 to UNHCR is paltry. There is much more that Singapore can do to help ASEAN countries in dealing with the refugee crisis. Some opportunity areas include: offering avenues for refugees to access education or employment opportunities through scholarships and special work passes. Integrating refugees into the workforce aligns with Singapore’s plans to increase its population to 6.9 million by the year 2030, as stipulated in the government’s Population White Paper.

In difficult times, it is easy for governments and world leaders to focus on the socio-economic constraints within their own countries, but now more than ever, countries must band together and respond to humanitarian crises with compassion and a moral conscience. The responsibility of helping refugees lies not only with traditional resettlement countries like the United States and Australia, or the neighbours of refugee-producing countries, like Bangladesh or Turkey, but with each and every country.

To find out more about Singapore’s stance on refugees, visit our research project “Singapore & Refugees” on socialcollab.sg.

Lea.jpg

Lea Tran is an ethnic Chinese, former "boat person" refugee from Vietnam. From being a refugee, Lea eventually became a successful chemist who synthesized the compound that became a cocktail drug to treat HIV-AIDS in 1998. She is now a motivational speaker and an advocate for refugee rights. She is a board member and advocate for the non-profit group Together for Good Refugee Film School: www.refugeefilmschool.com, which provides education and employment opportunities to young refugees in Malaysia awaiting resettlement. Find out more about her life in the book I Did Not Miss the Boat: Memoir of a Vietnam Hoa Refugee.

Hawkins Road Camp 2019 - photograph courtesy of Lea Tran

Hawkins Road Camp 2019 - photograph courtesy of Lea Tran

OpinionJee KohAdvocates for Refugees Singapore, Lea Tran, Hawkins Road Refugee Camp1 Comment