Khao-I-Dang was a Khmer refugee camp located 20 km north of Aranyaprathet in Prachinburi (now Sa Kaeo) province of Thailand.

Khao-I-Dang was the oldest and most enduring refugee camp on the Thai-Cambodian border.

Situated on the sparsely wooded plains in eastern Thailand a few miles from the Cambodian border, the huge compound of bamboo and thatch houses was opened on Nov. 21, 1979 after the fall of the Khmer Rouge.¹ Following the establishment of an emergency camp for refugees at Sa Kaeo, the Thai Ministry of the Interior authorized Mark Malloch Brown of the UNHCR to build a second camp at the foot of Khao-I-Dang Mountain. According to Martin Barber, Chief of UNHCR’s Kampuchean Unit,“The site, covering an area of 2.3 square kilometers on a gently sloping hill, had good drainage. It opened...after just four days of preparatory work spent in establishing the overall design of the camp and developing the basic infrastructure (roads, water tanks, and latrines) of the first “chunk”. On the first day 4,800 people arrived and by December 31 there were 84,800.²" Khao-I-Dang (KID) was intended to serve as a temporary holding center for refugees who would either be repatriated to Cambodia or expatriated to third countries. The population eventually reached 160,000 in March 1980³. Later, as KID became the main holding center for refugees awaiting third country visas, illegal entry to the camp became highly sought after by refugees desperate to escape from Cambodia, and smuggling, theft and violence spiraled out of control⁴. By December of 1982 the population had dropped to 40,134⁵as refugees were forcibly repatriated, sent to third countries, or sent back to the border camps⁶. ICRC chose KID for their first border surgical hospital where acute trauma patients were cared for, initially war wounded but later dominated by landmine victims. Many Cambodians recall spending some time at KID, including Dith Pran and Dr Haing S. Ngor of The Killing Fields, both of whom were employed in the 400-bed ICRC hospital⁷⁸. The camp finally closed on March 3rd 1993 during the UNTAC operation when all remaining residents were moved to Site II to await their personal repatriation⁹. Food, water, and medical services were provided by Thai and international relief organizations¹⁰.

References

External links

• Border camps
• Personal Experience at KID 1980
• Khao-I-Dang page at Columbia University's course site on Forced Migration and Health

Further reading

• Levy, B. S. and D. C. Susott (1987). Years of horror, days of hope : responding to the Cambodian refugee crisis. Millwood, N.Y., Associated Faculty Press.
• Braile, L. E. (2005). We shared the peeled orange : the letters of "Papa Louis" from the Thai-Cambodian Border Refugee Camps, 1981-1993. Saint Paul, Syren Book Co. [1]

13°53′38.85″N 102°40′03.21″E / 13.894125, 102.6675583