Cyclone Nargis’ victims from the Irrawaddy Delta are fleeing in large numbers to Mon State and Karen State , Southern Burma to try and make a living, according to villagers from Mon State . Witnesses have seen entire families as well as single mothers and children all fleeing for survival, laden with heavy bags.

After Cyclone Nargis washed out the Irrawaddy, survivors flowed into Southern Burma from the third week of May until now. Many were trying to reach relatives who worked in areas less-affected by the cyclone, and head villagers were now busy trying to keep track of and register the sudden influx of internally displaced persons (IDPs).

“Survivor’s relatives and neighbors who work in this area have been calling their friends and relatives from the areas where the cyclone really hit hard. They have been calling them in large numbers, as now we have between four and five hundred new arrivals to Ye township per day,” a head villager from Ye township told Kaowao.  He went on to say that they are currently hiring many of the new arrivals as cheap farm labor.

Aye Maung who came from Irrawaddy Delta to Mon state in search of a better job told Kaowao, “I’d like to say I am lucky because I was here (Mon state) before the cyclone, seeking work for myself as well as for my father and my brother. Now my mother and my sisters have arrived here as IDPs. My father is still missing. My plan before Nargis was not to bring my mother and sisters here, but we lost our house in the cyclone – which used to house all six of us – so I decided they must join me here.”  Aye Maung’s native town is an area very badly affected by the cyclone, East Gone Hnyin Than village, Pyar Pon township.  He added, “I don’t think we could go back to our native town to spend the money we earn here. I think we are here now to find a better life. We are here to work and live.”

Currently in southern Burma there is a lack of labor as high numbers of people seek work and a better life in the neighboring countries of Thailand and Malaysia .  Many people who find themselves in Mon and Karen states for resettlement or in the wake or Nargis can now make a home for themselves.

A community leader from Kwan Hlar village, Mudon township, Mon state told Kaowao that there is a strong worker community in his village, with an entire block for workers which has doubled since the post-Nargis arrivals.  He added that workers from Irrawaddy and Pegu Divisions were appropriate for the southern community because they were used to earning their living in agriculture similar to that of southern Burma .

More than 133,000 people are dead or missing following the Cyclone Nargis, which hit Burma on May 2nd and 3rd with winds up to 200kph wreaking havoc and mass destruction through the Irrawaddy delta, Burma ’s former capital Rangoon , Pegu, and some parts of Mon and Karen states.  The United Nations estimates that one million hungry and homeless survivors have yet to receive any aid, despite the military junta’s many promises to speed up the relief effort.