In the case of the Thai-Cambodian border dispute, the SEE TRUE team traveled to a place to meet with Cambodians who were hiding from being hunted in Bangkok. They are a group of people who are against Samdech Hun Sen, who has now moved himself to be the President of the Senate and also the Chairman of the Cambodian People's Party (CPP) and let his son, Hun Manet, succeed as Prime Minister. But in reality, in the past, he still has a very important role.

These Cambodians have been living in hiding in Thailand for years, with the worst incident for them being the murder of Lim Kimya, a former opposition MP in January. And back in 2016, there was the case of Kem Lei, a well-known political analyst who was shot dead in Phnom Penh. That made them have to be very careful.

The tension came pouring out as soon as we started talking. They were political refugees, with different backgrounds.

"Kheang" was a member of the CNRP party, which was dissolved in 2017. In 2019, he was imprisoned for two months for campaigning for people to go out and welcome Sam Rainsy, the former Cambodian opposition leader, back to his country. At that time, Sam Rainsy was living in exile in France and was going to return to Cambodia via Thailand but was blocked.

Kheang recounted that while he was imprisoned, he was forced to become a member of Samdech Hun Sen's CPP party, but he refused. Until Sam Rainsy could no longer return to Cambodia, he was released along with over a hundred other political prisoners who were imprisoned for the same reason. This forced him to take his family and flee to Thailand to seek asylum and sell their house in Kandal province, next to Hun Sen's house, to get money to support themselves while in exile abroad.

"Sukhum", another refugee, said he spends most of his days confined to a small rented room, four meters long and just two meters wide. The cramped room is filled with symbols of the fight against what she calls "the Hun Sen regime", particularly shirts printed with the image of Mr. Kem Ley, who was shot dead.

Sukhum's origins as a refugee differ from others. She recounts that in 2002, her houses and land in Koh Kong province were seized by the government and given to capitalists to build factories without paying a single baht in compensation. She then persuaded thousands of villagers whose land had been seized at the same time to protest. Ultimately, she was arrested and forced to flee to Thailand, where she became an activist against the Hun Sen regime.

It has been 16 years since that day, and it has been 16 years since I saw my family again, including my only son who I had to leave at the age of 1 year.

"Mr. Kam" had to take his wife and 3 children to escape arrest and seek refuge in Thailand. He said that in the 2023 election, he applied to be an MP for Pailin Province under the name of the Saengthian Party, but this party was disqualified by the Election Commission and he was forced by those in power to become a member of the CPP Party. Those who refused would be issued arrest warrants.

There are many other refugees who have suffered similar fates in their home countries. For example, Sun, whose mother is a candidate for the Candlelight Party, said that she was stripped of her rights and issued an arrest warrant, but her mother managed to escape. Authorities then arrested her brother and imprisoned him for six months, forced him to become a CPP member, and then released him. She also had an arrest warrant for inciting unrest, but she managed to escape.

Another person who has been living in exile in Thailand for 6 years is “Soka” . He was a member of the CNRP party. When news broke in 2019 that Mr. Sam Rainsy would return to the country via Thailand, Sokha traveled to Thailand to welcome his followers, which led to police waiting to arrest him at his home. After that, he was never able to return to the country again.

The assassination of Lim Kimya, a former opposition MP for the CNRP, in January has left refugees believing it was a political thorn in the side of a political rival, not a personal conflict. This has made them even more cautious, as from 2018 to the end of 2014, 14 Cambodian refugees were arrested in Thailand and sent back to Cambodia.

Refugees also believe that Prime Minister Hun Sen's border dispute with Thailand is aimed at building power for his son, Hun Manet, who is succeeding him as prime minister, and to conceal the profits he and his associates made from Cambodian call center gangs.

These Cambodians have been granted refugee status by UNHCR, and now there are more than 30 families waiting to travel to a third country, where they still dream of seeing change in their homeland.