What if you had no home? If you were forced to out of your town, or your country, by famine or natural disasters, war or political violence? Today is World Refugee Day, an observance by the United Nations intended to draw attention to the enormous problem of refugees worldwide.
According to UNHCR, there are currently more than 120 million individuals who have been forcibly displaced from their homes.
https://www.unrefugees.org/refugee-facts/statistics/
Many live in desperate circumstances, squalid and overcrowded camps or dilapidated city slums. Their flight from home has not necessarily made them any safer. In many countries refugees face discrimination, intimidation and the threat of being forced to escape yet again.
To mark World Refugee Day, I’m giving away a free copy of my refugee-themed romance story Refuge to anyone who wants it. To claim your copy, go to Smashwords (https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/945432), click on Buy and enter the following coupon code:
YP25L
The price will drop to zero and you will be able to download your book in your choice of digital formats.
In addition, for each download of the story between now and Sunday night, when the coupon expires, I will donate one dollar to UNHCR.
I hope you’ll join me in solidarity with the world’s refugees.
Thank you.
Blurb
Love erases borders.
I never wanted to be a soldier, especially a guard at the remote, dusty Mae La refugee camp, a thousand kilometers from my home. But these days there were no jobs in our village. My mother depended on the money I sent her each month. Still, she cried whenever I phoned her.
Until I met the lovely hill tribe girl Preean, though—until she asked for help I knew I shouldn’t give her—I never really understood what I was doing to my fellow human beings. How could she go on, one day after another in that desolate place, without any hope for change? Mae La was limbo—once you arrived here you were stuck. There was nowhere else you could go.
To love her was dangerous, a risk to my own life and freedom. But when she offered her body and her heart, how could I refuse?
Excerpt
“Excuse me, do you have a pencil?”
I jumped. I had been daydreaming about home, eating somtum and gai yang with Mum and my brother Daeng under the tamarind tree in the backyard. The light tap on my shoulder dragged me back to the smelly, dusty camp where I was supposed to be on guard.
“What?”
“A pencil? Or a pen?” The young woman gestured back towards a knot of kids gathered in the shade of the water tower. She held up a sheet of corrugated cardboard scavenged from some trash heap. “I’m teaching them their alphabet. I’ve got this but nothing to write with.”
She wore a faded teeshirt, baggy shorts and flip flops. Her hair hung down her back in a messy ponytail tied with an old shoelace. Still I could see that she was pretty, slightly built, with sharper features and paler skin then the girls back home. Her smile appeared genuine, though her eyes appraised me nervously. I guessed that it took some courage for her to approach me, a uniformed soldier with a loaded rifle—never mind that I was only a year or two older than she was, and wanting nothing more than to go back to my family in Yasathon.
I leaned my gun against my thigh. “I’ve got a pencil back at the barracks, but I can’t leave my post until my shift is over. Maybe you could postpone your lessons until after three? I’ll bring it to you then.”
Her face lit up. She grabbed and squeezed my hands. Hers were tiny, but strong. “Oh, thank you, sir! Thank you.”
I blushed at her enthusiasm. “Never mind. Now you’d better go.” I’d noticed Sergeant Chokchai headed my way. He didn’t approve of what he called “fraternization” between us and the camp’s inhabitants.
“Everything secure, Private Nu?” He loomed over me. I swallowed hard. He came from Bangkok. He had made it clear in his view, I was just a stupid hick from the Northeast.
“Yes, sir. Everything is normal, sir.”
“What were you doing, talking to that filthy Burmese cunt?”
I winced at his foulness. “Nothing. She wanted to know the time, that’s all.”
“Why should she care? She’s not going anywhere!” Chokchai gave a nasty chuckle “You should know better, though. Don’t talk to them. Don’t get involved in their affairs. Oh, they’ll act all polite and respectful, but they’re snakes. They’ll stab you as soon as your back’s turned. You remember what happened to Sakon, don’t you?”
“Yes, sir.” Sakon had been another sergeant. They had found him behind the mess hall with his throat slit. Everyone assumed that he was murdered by one of the refugees, even though he’d been a brutal man who had many enemies.
“Just remember, they’re animals. Ignorant, superstitious animals.” He looked over his shoulder in the direction that the girl had disappeared, shaking his head in obvious disgust, before returning his unwelcome attention to me.
* * *
120 million people – what a huge problem! But help begins with awareness and with compassion.
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