On a hot sticky day in Kuala Lumpur Crown Princess Mary has her United Nations ambassador hat on as she spends the morning meeting some of the refugees who wait in line at the UN High Commission for Refugees.
There are 103,000 refugees and asylum seekers registered in Malaysia and between 600 and 1000 come here each day; some registered refugees seeking advice, financial aid or international resettlement help and some new asylum seekers registering as refugees.
The vast majority are from Myanmar and here today there are many children, babies and some pregnant women among the ordered crowds wilting in the heat, patiently waiting for help.
Being a refugee in Malaysia is not easy, and as the beautifully dressed, elegant Princess Mary walks among these disadvantaged souls, the vastness of the gap between her life in Denmark and life fleeing persecution and war couldn’t be more acute.
On her tour of the facility the Princess can’t help but make a few unscheduled stops to meet some of the refugees in person. Mr Duhlianthan is the very proud father of one month old baby girl, Ram Tha Din. He and his wife fled Myanmar eight years ago he tells the Princess and they now live on the edge of society in Malaysia as refugees.
Nevertheless he is all smiles as he shakes hands with Mary and eager to show off his new daughter.
While they are allowed to live here, this family has no status. Mr Duhlianthan cannot work legally nor can his children access formal education. They can use the public healthcare system but only by paying for it. It is these families the UN are working to help.
But the UN isn’t the only body supporting refugees here and later in the morning Mary gets to meet some thriving children at the charity-funded Malaysian Karen Organisaton School, actually a small room on the second floor of a very rundown building in an insalubrious part of town where 70 Myanmar refugee kids between the ages of 7 and 17 receive much-needed education.
These children are adorable — bright-eyed, laughing and seemingly loving their lessons -— and Mary is in her element.
She crouches down to talk to 7-year-old Zephyr Po Ban who tells the “pretty lady” in english that she’s been learning mathematics. Mary tests her with a few easy sums which Zephyr knocks out of the ball park delivering her answers with a beaming grin. She’s a smart girl.
In advance of the visit the Danish Embassy had sent a special gift to the school, the perfect Danish export — Lego! And for their part the kids are proud to give Mary their own export, a Kachin, the traditional Burmese dress.
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