Women in Displacement


Weekly column written for the Singapore Unbound newsletter. Sign up here.

The number of people forcibly displaced by war and violence has not only increased in the last three years, but the time taken for resettlement in a safe "third" country has also grown longer. In fact, the number of refugees who have spent more than 5 years in exile has jumped from 7 million to 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.

This is just one of the many revelations in an op-ed written for SP Blog by Beth from Advocates for Refugees-Singapore (AFR-SG) as part of Refugee Awareness Week (RAW) 2021, an annual campaign held in conjunction with World Refugee Day commemorated globally every June 20. Beth also reveals Singapore's more humane past when the country hosted Vietnamese refugees from 1977 to 1996 in Hawkins Road Refugee Camp, a former British military barracks. She speaks to Lea Tran, a Hoa Vietnamese refugee, about her perilous escape from Vietnam and her stay in Singapore. Lea has since resettled in the US, where she became a successful chemist who synthesized the compound that became a cocktail drug to treat HIV-AIDS. At the end of her op-ed, Beth asks why Singapore, one of the richest countries in the world, is not doing more to help with the current refugee crisis.

Give the chance and the help, refugees can contribute in all kinds of ways to their host countries. Leena Al-Mujahed, a Yemeni refugee living in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, founded the Yemeni Refugee Women Association (YRWA) to advocate for the rights of women and children, organize language courses, and provide social services. In her op-ed published on SP Blog, Leena remembers having a baby named after her as the mother was so grateful to Leena for staying with her in the hospital, translating between patient and hospital staff, and paying the hospital fees.

You can hear Leena speak about her own experience as a refugee and her work with YRWA this Saturday, June 26, at 8 pm GMT+8 (8 am ET). She will speak with Vietnamese American novelist Monique Truong, a former refugee herself, in a conversation moderated by Nursyaswani, a member of AFR-SG. Signed copies of Monique's novel The Sweetest Fruits, just released in Singapore and Malaysia, will be on sale during the event, and all proceeds will be donated to YRWA. Co-organized by Gaudy Boy and AFR-SG, the online event is free, but registration is required. This is the first time that Gaudy Boy is working with a non-profit to promote a worthy social cause, so we hope that you will support us.

Jee Leong Koh
June 24, 2021


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