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Monica fled Myanmar for Australia as a child. The crisis there has brought it all back
Refugee Monica Omtha has lived in Australia for more than a decade, but the worsening situation in Myanmar has triggered her memories of having to flee her homeland when she was young. She now fears for her family who stayed behind.
Published 7 April 2021 4:56pm
Updated 22 February 2022 1:59pm
By Tys Occhiuzzi
Image: Monica Omtha fled Myanmar and grew up in Coffs Harbour, NSW. (Supplied/Monica Omtha)
Monica Omtha was 10 years old when her family decided to flee Myanmar.
“It’s an experience I wouldn’t wish upon anyone,” the now 24-year-old tells SBS News.
Monica was born in the hilltop village of Mindat, in Myanmar’s western Chin state. Moving around was already a regular part of life, but then her family made the decision to leave the country, then under military rule.
“We didn’t take much with us,” she recalls. “Some people were being paid to get us out, and there were other people with us as well.”
Monica says she, her mother and younger brother were told to lie down in a boat before they were covered by a blanket with holes in it so they could breathe. As they departed, she remembers hearing gunshots.
Monica with her younger brother in Myanmar. Source: Supplied
After that, the boat journey is a blur. They were heading for Thailand.
“As we got off the boat it was really muddy and we had to drag our feet up to move through the mud. My brother lost his pants – these things you just don’t forget,” she says.
Then the group was told to run.
“Here in Australia, you hear police sirens and you feel safe. There in Thailand, we ran away from the sirens,” she says.
Monica and her family did not eat for days. The group was bundled into a truck for the next stage of the journey, where they remained, terrified of being caught by the police.
Refugees from Myanmar cross the border into Thailand last month following military airstrikes. Source: Kydpl Kyodo
"That's where they ended up cutting my hair to make me look like a boy, so I wouldn't get raped," she says.
"I was just in survival mode - I just knew we were running away. I remember my mum saying, 'we can't let her look like a girl'."
That's where they ended up cutting my hair to make me look like a boy, so I wouldn't get raped. - Monica Omtha
Monica says she felt the most scared when her mother fitted her with a bra containing some of the family’s most important documents concealed inside.
“That’s when I thought, if anything happened to Mum, I wouldn’t know what to do.”
The family made it.
For a year-and-a-half, Monica says she lived in Malaysia with 40 to 50 people in a two-bedroom apartment, waking up at 4am to line up outside a United Nations office.
Finally, the family was granted visas to move to Australia. They came to live in a three-bedroom apartment of their own.
“There was this culture shock. I’d never seen all this Australian food – I’d never seen a rice cracker before, not even things like pasta,” she says.
Monica Omtha at a protest in Canberra. Source: Supplied
Having grown up in Coffs Harbour on the New South Wales north coast, and earning a scholarship to study in Sydney, she is now reliving a past she thought was well behind her, and rekindling connections to a country she thought she’d never see again.
The crisis in Myanmar, which followed the military coup in February has taken a heavy and unexpected toll on her and others who left. The news of the military takeover initially came as a surprise, she says.
“It didn’t even occur to me that it was that bad because in my lifetime that’s never happened.”
The military is now in charge of the country for the first time since 2011, a state of emergency has been declared for a year and more than 500 people have died following widespread protests.
Monica tries to contact her grandparents, aunts and uncles who remain there as much as she can. Sometimes she won’t hear from them for days, which causes anxiety.
Soldiers advance to disperse protesters in Yangon, Myanmar, last month. Source: EPA
“Every time I see another death online, I imagine it could be one of my family members,” she says.
Every time I see another death online, I imagine it could be one of my family members. - Monica Omtha
For two weeks after the coup, she couldn’t sleep.
“I would wake up in the middle of the night with nightmares about when I left Myanmar. It felt so real and I had to tell myself it wasn’t real. I would wake up just bawling my eyes out.”
“I was really numb, and I didn’t see a lot of my friends. So many of my friends were trying to give me advice on how to cope with it and I just didn’t respond.”
New connections
Burmese Australian psychologist Sithu Thuyasithu says the impact of the coup can't be underestimated.
“What I detect in the Burmese community is pain and hatred,” he says. “They want the military to go away. The sooner they go, the better.”
Monica says it can be difficult to communicate her feelings with her family, which Mr Thuyasithu says is common.
“Burmese people are not familiar with psychology and mental health. They prefer to go out with friends to talk and feel better.”
The news of the coup has since led Monica to form connections with a community she’d never previously known. She describes stumbling across a protest in Sydney’s CBD and seeking out the organiser of the event.
“I went up to him and we spoke in Burmese, a language I haven’t spoken in so long,” she says.
“As he was leaving, he said ‘I feel so sorry for her’, I think because I didn’t know any Burmese people in Sydney and my family is six hours away [in Coffs Harbour]. I broke down.”
The group invited Monica into their community in Western Sydney. She also attended a protest at Parliament House in Canberra, where she met more Burmese Australians.
As she continues to watch the developments in Myanmar, Monica says it has been invaluable to rekindle a connection with people who have undergone similar experiences. She encourages others to do the same.
Readers seeking support with mental health can contact Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636. More information is available at . supports people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
