Strangers in their own land: the Cambodians deported from US and how they are making a home from home

Ry Mam flashes a smile and passes two beers across the bar. Upbeat Cambodian music blares from speakers hooked up to a screen tuned to YouTube, while a mix of locals and expats spill out onto the street, playing games to welcome in the Khmer New Year.

“It’s the last day before everything closes for New Year,” he say, welcoming a stream of regulars through the door of Ry’s Kitchen. “I wanted to do something special for the community.”

It is in the laid-back Cambodian city of Battambang that the 41-year-old has built a life for himself, one far removed from the one he had in the United States, which he called home for 32 years.

As one of more than 540 men and women deported from the US to Cambodia after committing an offence – including minor misdemeanours – 6½ years ago, Ry Mam was torn from the life he knew, sent to the kingdom and told he could never return.

Born in Cambodia, Ry Mam fled the horrors of the Khmer Rouge regime, which ruled from 1975 to 1979, with his family. They settled in a refugee camp on the Thai border and, just before his second birthday, he was sent to the US, where he eventually settled in California with his family.

Growing up in a tough neighbourhood riddled with racial tensions, as a youth Ry Mam joined a gang. He soon started racking up felonies, serving three separate jail terms for drug offences, possession of a firearm and other aggravated charges.