I was part of the Karen opposition group in Burma. I had to escape from our village across the Thai/Burmese border but all the Karen men, over the age of 13 had to hide in the forest and fight the Burmese government. I thought I was going to die there. With the help of an English friend I escaped through Thailand to England.

I still feel like I’m a refugee here. One day I want to go back there. At the moment I dream of my home in Burma but there’s nowhere for me to go back to because I don’t have Burmese identity. I can’t go back legally and my house is not there anymore, it’s been turned into forest. When I fled the village I left everything in a box. I don’t even have a single photograph. I left everything behind. Now I have a family in the UK it feels like a home here but I still have that mentality of having your own homeland, your own culture, your own people, your own community around you.