Hmong and Lao Refugee Women - Hmong Studies Internet ...

Hmong and Lao Refugee Women: Reflections of a Hmong-American Woman Anthropologist by Dia Cha, Ph.D. Hmong Studies Journal,
2005, 6: 1-35.
according to UNHCR regulations, these woman should have been granted the sort of legitimate change of
status which would have allowed them to decline this repatriation.
The author, accordingly, spoke to a UNHCR case worker in the matter, and it was discovered that
important documents were missing from the files of the three women concerned. The case worker, in
consequence, suggested that the documents, detailing the circumstances of the arrest of husbands in Laos,
should be submitted to the UNHCR branch office in Bangkok. This was done, and the documents were
duly submitted with a letter requesting a review of the case. In addition, a transcription of the interview
between the three women and the author was included in the packet. Two weeks after the author's
departure from Napho camp, the women's cases were reviewed. Subsequently, too, rumors of the episode
spread quickly. In the event, many asylum seekers – who had already been screened out of eligibility –
went to the UNHCR office in the camp and requested that their cases, too, be reviewed.
As may be imagined, this created something of a dilemma for UNHCR, and several UNHCR
officials became quite incensed at the author's involvement. The author had, so it was said, exceeded
research demands to become a refugee advocate, and the screening process – a highly politicized affair –
should have been considered by her as being "off limits." The fallout from this awkward development
was not without its adverse aspect, for, when the author returned from a trip to Laos expecting to travel to
the refugee camp at Chieng Kham, the office of UNHCR in Bangkok refused to grant a camp pass. The
author was thereafter barred from any further visits to Chieng Kham. 15
This incident is instructive, touching, as it does, on the nature of the boundary between scholarly
interviewer, friend, and legal advocate – a boundary much considered in the body of the article, above. In
an examination of the incident, the question must be asked, "Where does one draw the line, and what
might have been done differently in order to avoid this situation, so uncomfortable for all concerned?"
Many alternatives suggest themselves, none entirely satisfactory. In retrospect, however, the actions
15 It seemed, after this incident, that UNHCR would never again allow access to the camps where this research
project had been conducted. However, during a subsequent visit to Thailand to present research findings at a related
conference, a director of one of the UNHCR offices in Napho camp offered permission to return after graduation – a
considerable surprise.
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