Deported from US to Cambodia for crimes, returnees find a purpose running offbeat tours for visitors
- Born in Thai refugee camps, they grew up in America; expelled to Cambodia, a country they’d never known, many struggle but a tour agency is changing that
- Zin Adventures shows visitors hidden aspects of Cambodia and its vanishing heritage, and shows deportees ‘they’re not lost, they are not alone’
Standing in the dappled shade of The Chinese House, an upmarket restaurant and bar in Phnom Penh steeped in history, the guides introduce themselves.
Deported from the United States to Cambodia, they are turning over a new leaf and inspiring their peers to do the same, with the launch of a tour agency that shows visitors hidden sides to the country.
It quickly becomes apparent that the five men have one thing in common – each has been exiled from the place they called home.
Bobby Orn, Bunthoeun Ly, Khan Hin, Buck Billy and Jimmy Hiem tell similar versions of the stories shared by the more than 700 Cambodians who grew up in the US and have been deported since 2002.
The majority recount being born in refugee camps on the Thai border, their families having escaped the horrors of the Khmer Rouge regime, under which almost a quarter of the population died between 1975 and 1979.
It is the introduction to a 90-minute walking tour of Phnom Penh’s historic European quarter, the latest offering from Zin Adventures.