Songkhla, also called Singora, city, southern Thailand, located on the eastern coast of peninsular Thailand. Songkhla is a port at the outlet of Luang Lagoon. It is a regional center for the Gulf of Thailand coastal area and is commercially oriented to Malaysia and Singapore.

Songkhla Camp in Thailand was hastily put together by Bangkok in June 1976 in Mueng District but it quickly ran out of room for the refugees; and thus in December 1978, a bigger camp was constructed on a beach far away from any sights of civilization in order to house the existing 3,000 boat people. Two years later in February 1980, the camp grew to contain 32 wooden barracks and shelter for more than 6,000 refugees who were in the camp at the time. The camp was surrounded by a barbed-wire fence and controlled by a Thai army company. It had a few wells to supply fresh water for cooking but no place for the Asylees to gather fire woods; thus, when the UNHCR’s monthly limited supply of charcoal ran out, the refugees were required to buy fire woods and other necessities such as cooking wares at a small market ran by Thai soldiers’ cronies just outside of the camp. Without financial resources or monetary assistance from overseas relatives, a refugee had no choice but to depend on charity in order to survive.

Source: Wikipedia