Pope: 'I saw much suffering' at Lesbos refugee camp

Former Miss Malaysia Deborah Henry is a busy queen

Deborah Henry.

Despite what some people might think of beauty pageants, Deborah Henry says it afforded her a platform to promote worthwhile causes and gave her the visibility and voice to speak for those who couldn't.

As a model and former beauty queen, Henry has been Miss Malaysia twice over - representing our country first in the Miss World pageant in 2007 and later at the Miss Universe in 2011 - to say she is a veteran on the circuit would be an understatement.

Turning up for this interview in ripped skinny jeans, floral cropped top and ballerina flats - casual by beauty queen standards - Henry nevertheless looks every inch the glamorous persona she projects to the public. "It's my dress down day," she quips.

Standing at 1.77m, she towers over everyone in the room and her dazzling smile competes with the sunlight streaming in through the French doors.

She's toting a peacock print canvas bag from Nala, a Dutch designer based in Malaysia, which holds her change of outfits for the photo shoot.

"Don't you love this venue?" she asks, referring to bungalow cum event space she has chosen for us to meet.

"It's one of the venues which is registered with us and available to rent for private or corporate events."

Located in a quiet residential street in Taman Seputeh, Kuala Lumpur, this multi-level home is called Amore Lifestyle event space.

It is one of many venues which is available for rent at Venuescape (www.venuescape.my), the newly formed event-planning and location-scouting company which Henry is a director and shareholder.

"We started Venuescape about six months ago and there are six directors who each bring different strengths," explains Henry, 30.

"My role is an advisory one as well as business development. We fulfil an interesting niche where we bring together venue owners with people who wish to seek out new and different places to organise their functions."

For our interview, we settle down on a sofa and Henry starts off speaking in a low alto which exerts a calming effect.

Her zen-like demeanour is disarming and extremely engaging, an attribute she must have perfected during those gruelling rehearsals while vying for both those coveted beauty crowns.

"My idea of beauty pageants has always been positive," she says when I ask her about her experiences in both Miss World and Miss Universe.

"The kinds of women who compete in beauty pageants are not only beautiful but highly ambitious, super smart and extremely driven.

The pressure we all face while competing is quite incredible, I think even some guys would crack under the pressure."

But what about the cattiness? Surely not all the girls get along and the green-eyed monster must rear her ugly head once in a while?

"There are bad apples in every field of work. But for the most part, the competitors are such amazing and strong women.

I look at the friends I've made there on Facebook today and they are so successful in their own right, running businesses and holding high positions in companies."

Her voice goes up an octave when I ask how she counters feminists who say beauty pageants are demeaning to women and objectify the fairer sex.

"My fight for women's rights is that a woman is able to make her own choices and that has always been the fundamental voice of feminism.

Back in the day we fought for the right to vote and we are still fighting for equal pay. My fight is that women have the choice.

Whether they choose to be a stay-at-home mum or join the work force, there should exist a system which supports them and their choices."

She adds: "If a young woman wishes to enter a beauty pageant, why is that any different from someone who dreams of becoming a CEO? It's her choice and it's not for others to tell her she shouldn't because that's being judgmental."

Point taken. Henry recalls the physically and mentally demanding preparation she had to go through during the six to eight months leading up to the Miss Universe pageant.

"I was training and working out out every day at the gym and drinking protein shakes and studying current affairs for the Q&A section.

It's anything but weakening, in fact its empowering."

What bothers Henry more is not the fact that she paraded in front of millions of people in a swimsuit but that a girl somewhere in the world is not allowed to go to school.

This brings us to her charity work and the school for refugees she co-founded.

Henry established the Fugee School (www.fugeeschool.com) with a friend back in 2009 after she became aware of the unfavourable conditions refugees were living under.

Starting with just four students, today the Fugee School has 130 refugee children mainly from Somalia, Syria, Yemen, Palestine and Iraq.

"There's a lot of misinformation about refugees," she muses.

"People think refugees come to a country and bring unsavoury elements with them and steal jobs. But put yourself in their shoes. If bombs are dropping all around you, would you stay put? Of course not!"

She continues: "We are facing the worst humanitarian and refugee crisis since World War II today.

Children suffer the most in this kind of situation and at our school, we let them know they matter and that we want them to learn and become strong and successful. Without food and water, a child will die.

But without an education, they will also die because they would not have a fighting chance to survive in today's world."

Looking at her concerned countenance, it's evident that she cares deeply for the less fortunate and is fervent in her efforts in championing the underdogs.

She may be known for being a Miss Malaysia and consequently defined by her looks, but in Henry's case, true beauty radiates from within.

-women.asiaone.com

Refugees Fear Forced Return To Myanmar After Historic Election

Sally Kantar Refugees Deeply

SALLY KANTAR

People leave an unofficial crossing in Karen State in Myanmar to enter Tak Province in Thailand, home to a sizeable population from Myanmar and the largest refugee camps.

Amid rumors of repatriation and forced returns, refugee advocates argue that militarization, confiscation of land and decreases in international aid would threaten the security of ethnic-minority refugee groups should they return to their home communities in Myanmar.

When she was just 14 years old, Naw Wahkushee, a member of the ethnic Karen nation, left her village in the east of Myanmar for the safety of a refugee camp in Thailand.

It was 1998, more than 50 years after the start of the first of Myanmar’s many revolutions for ethnic self-determination.



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Wahkushee now works as a human rights advocate for the Karen Women Organisation, a women’s political empowerment group on the Thai-Myanmar border. She is one of hundreds of thousands of people from Myanmar who have been forced to leave the country over the past six decades.

“There are people who have had to run for their life since they were born,” she said. “They want to sleep through the night, to do their farming without the military mortaring their villages.”

The exact number of ethnic groups in Myanmar remains contested. Officially there are more than 100 distinct groups, which comprise more than one-third of Myanmar’s population. These communities have been disproportionately uprooted in one of the world’s longest-running civil wars, which began shortly after independence from Britain in 1948.

After 50 years of military rule, Myanmar transitioned to a quasi-civilian leadership in 2010. Two years later, the government initiated a controversial peace process with the country’s nonstate armed groups, followed by a nationwide ceasefire agreement that was signed in October 2015 by the government and only eight of the country’s more than 20 ethnic armed organizations. Yet fighting has not halted. In areas of northern and eastern Myanmar, government offensives against nonsignatory groups have intensified.

Up to 140,000 refugees, mostly Karen and Karenni ethnic groups, live in Thailand’s nine camps. Millions more — including Burman, Chin, Kachin, Mon, Rakhine, Rohingya, Shan and Ta’ang — are displaced both internally and in neighboring countries that have not signed the 1951 or 1967 conventions on refugee rights.

SOE ZEYA TUN/REUTERS

The exact number of ethnic groups in Myanmar remains contested. Officially there are more than 100 distinct groups, which comprise more than one-third of Myanmar’s population.

Over the past several years, however, there have been growing rumors of potential repatriation and forced returns, particularly in the wake of the historic 2015 general elections that resulted in a landslide win for the National League for Democracy (NLD), the longtime opposition party led by Aung San Suu Kyi.

While many Burmese celebrated the election result, some within refugee communities have expressed fears that the transfer of power to an NLD government will serve as justification for neighboring Southeast Asian host countries forcibly to return refugees to their home communities in Myanmar.



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“There is a lot that has to be fixed before people can go back,” said Myra Dahgaypaw, a Karen refugee and former IDP who is now a policy advisor for the Washington-based U.S. Campaign for Burma. “What if the Thai government and UNHCR say they are ready to send everyone back? We have to keep advocating so they are not sent against their will.”

The UNHCR describes current conditions as “not conducive to voluntary repatriation,” but also spoke with camp residents about potential returns last year. In 2014 Thai authorities said they had reached a repatriation agreement with Myanmar. While no official moves have been made, the pressure on refugees has been palpable since Myanmar’s political reforms started.

Aid workers also point out that assistance to refugees in Thailand, as well as cross-border aid to an estimated 600,000 internally displaced people, is drying up. This has made it even more challenging for local humanitarian groups to support the vulnerable populations.

Governments and donors “say they are not forcing them back and that there is the option of voluntary return, but they are not feeding them,” said one longtime humanitarian worker on the Thai-Myanmar border, who asked to not be named.

For example, according to reports released by Thailand-based refugee support network The Border Consortium, until 2010 adults in the Thai camps were each eligible for 33lb (15kg) of rice per month as part of their rations. A sliding scale exists to protect those most vulnerable from cuts. Funds from abroad have decreased and adults in some camps are now eligible for only 9kg of rice per month. To feed an adult two meals per day requires approximately 15kg of rice per month. Reducing the staple rations means that refugees are forced to skip meals.

Refugee advocates say that a powerful and combustible mix of factors – including domestic politics, growing foreign investment, related land confiscation and increased military presence – complicate the questions of safe passage and repatriation.

SOE ZEYA TUN/REUTERS

Some people within refugee communities have expressed fears that the transfer of power to an NLD government will serve as justification for neighboring Southeast Asian host countries forcibly to return refugees to their home communities in Myanmar.

“The struggle in Burma is not only for democracy. It is for ethnic rights,” said Wahkushee, who feels that an NLD-led government will not necessarily satisfy the ethnic minority groups’ aspirations. “We have to support both struggles, otherwise the same situation will happen again.”

Even with an NLD majority in parliament, the country still operates under the highly restrictive 2008 constitution, which guarantees 25 percent of legislative seats to the military, promises legal immunity to government officers and offers no financial autonomy to the resource-rich ethnic states.

“We might have a chance to amend it little by little,” said Seng Zin, of the Kachin Women’s Association Thailand, which documents continued military abuses against the 100,000 Kachin displaced in northern Myanmar.


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But constitutional changes require more than a 75-percent majority vote in parliament. “If we have a chance to write a new constitution in parliament which gives guarantees to the people, it would be better,” she said.

Dahgaypaw’s skepticism of the NLD-led government is also due to constitutional provisions that give the military control of three critical ministries: Border Affairs, Defense and Home Affairs. She wonders if Suu Kyi and her party will be able to address the needs of the displaced.

“Can [the NLD] go to the IDP locations? To the places without state health and education? Are they going to be able to present ethnic voices in the parliament? I don’t think so,” she said.

Another continued threat to ethnic communities’ rights is the dramatic increase in investments in Myanmar’s wealth of mineral, gas, oil and hydropower resources. Foreign direct investment to Myanmar doubled in 2015, surpassing $8 billion.

Refugees wishing to return to their homeland are concerned by a lack of government and international transparency on these investments. They say they fear potential conflict.

“State governments cannot decide what, where or how big [development] projects take place,” said Shan environmental activist Sai Khur Hseng. “Conflict over resources is even more likely when they are located in areas controlled by different ethnic and religious groups.”

Wahkushee added: “You can expect more refugees, not just because of war, but because of investment.”

Notably, many of the estimated 1–3 million migrant workers from Myanmar living in Thailand are “unrecognized” ethnic Shan refugees who were displaced by land grabs or environmental degradation connected to development projects.

Land confiscation and development have coincided with military expansion, which Dahgaypaw says is “still happening” despite reforms and the government’s promises of peace. Much of Myanmar continues to experience an increased military presence largely due to the race to exploit land and resources.

Wahkushee sees “no evidence” that the Myanmar army will leave the ethnic areas. She points out that newly constructed roads now make it easier to transport troops and heavy artillery to army encampments.

Hinting at the rise of a long-term occupation, she said “if things reverse, this time, you will have nowhere to hide.”

This article originally appeared on Refugees Deeply. For weekly updates and analysis about refugee issues, you can sign up to the Refugees Deeply email list.

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