This is an extract from interviews with a Karen refugee family from Burma, who came to Sheffield from a refugee camp in Thailand, as featured in the documentary film Moving to Mars.

The Say family arrived in the Darnall area of Sheffield in November 2007 and have never moved from this property. They did not have very good luck with their children; two of them died in the refugee camps and after a few months of being in the UK they got the news that their grandson, who was two years old, had died in the refugee camp. The family had experienced fighting many times, even though they were in a Thai refugee camp. None of them speak English.

Mrs Say: “When we arrived in Sheffield I was so afraid to cross the road in this big city. I did not want to go out or let my daughter to go out either, I’m really scared of being lost.”

Mr Say: “I have now learned English for two years already but it is too difficult for me. My wife and I never went to school in Burma. I learn and I forget it the next day.
I want to work but I cannot get any jobs. I hope the UK government will create non English-speaking jobs for our fellow Karen who do not speak English like me.”

Mrs Say: “I like the UK life, I do not need to pack my emergency bag any more. We are now free from the Burmese and Thai Soldiers torturing. I was scared to death when [my husband] told me about the Thai soldiers beating some of the men in the Karen refugee camp, because they went to look for vegetables in the Thai farmers’ farms.”

Mrs Say: “When we were in the camp, one night the Thai soldiers played with fireworks. We did not know that they were playing with them, we thought the Burmese soldiers were shooting into our camp. Then we grabbed our emergency basket and went to hide in the jungle. I thought that problem had stopped, but after 15 months of living in this property the troubles began. First, they threw stones at our window, pulled out our dustbin and poured out all the litter in front of our house.”

Mr Say: “I was peeking through the window and I saw many young people walking on the road. They tried to set fire to our dustbin but the fire did not start. The next day we went to collect all the litter and put it back in the bin, that night my brother-in-law who is English and my sister visited me from London. I asked him for help. I thought he might call the police, but he told me that if I called the police, the gang will do it more later. As none of us speak English he said we’d better keep it quiet.

The daughter: “I know one of them, he lives at the back of our back garden. He walks into our garden lots of times. Even though we close the garden door he still walks into it because we do not have the key for our gates.
I never play in my garden any more, I’m so scared of him. When we were in London, we were told that in this country some people try to catch children and sell them to other countries. Now I only play with my friends in my house.

Mrs Say: “Now [my husband] has covered all the windows in the kitchen with plastic bags and plain wood, and in the night time my daughter sleeps in the same bedroom with us. We do not turn on the light. We have to cover the table lamp with a piece of cloth so that if those young people are there they won’t notice that we are in the house and will leave us in peace.

Mr Say: “But after the community support members and the police visited us, we did not see them throwing their fireworks into our house or throw any rubbish into our garden any more. I think they know the English old couple who visited us and they have stopped now, I hope it won’t happen again.”