GEORGE TOWN, Dec 7 — Having a person sit on her in a van cramped with more than 20 people was an ordeal a 41-year-old mother from Myanmar will never forget during her journey to her promised land — Malaysia.

“I cannot express the pain and mental stress I went through. It was unbearable but that’s my fate if I wanted to survive,” she said in tears, recalling the 27-day journey she had taken from her home in Mawlamyine to Malaysia, illegally.

The woman, who declined to be named for fear of reprisal, crossed into the country from Kedah’s border with Thailand in April.

She said about 100 people were on the same journey and it was the second time she had entered the country illegally, adding that she first came to Malaysia nine years ago.

“My first husband died at the Alor Star Hospital from tuberculosis after he was caught in the jungle near the Thai-Malaysian border by the authorities five years ago,” she said.

“He was trying to enter Malaysia but he was caught because he had injured his leg. He was sentenced to jail before he fell sick.”

Two years ago, the woman met and married her second husband in Penang, where she managed to secure a job as a cleaner. Her husband, a Myanmar national, is also an illegal immigrant.

“I went back in December last year to visit my mother who has cancer. She died shortly after I returned to Malaysia in April.”

For her journey back, she had hired a human trafficking syndicate, agreeing to pay RM2,300 in five installments when she started working in the country.

She was told to go a waiting point where she was got into a van with more than 20 people.

“I remember the windows were heavily tinted and we were told to take turns sitting on each other,” she said, adding that along the way another van filled with people followed them.

It took three days to get to Myanmar’s border with Thailand where they were moved into Thai-registered vans. During their 19-day journey through Thailand, they stopped at several towns close to the jungle track.

“We were given sufficient food and we were put up in proper shelters at the towns,” she said.

They were finally transported to another location and told to walk to a camp near the Thai-Malaysian border. “We had to walk through thick jungle to the camp, where we had to wait for five days.”

At the camp, the woman said she saw about 60 other people. “We were only given drinking water and biscuits during the five days and were warned not to speak loudly for fear of being tracked by the authorities,” she said.

“We slept on the ground and used candles. If we had to go to the toilet, we used leaves to clean ourselves.”

On the fifth day, they were ordered to pack up and brave through the jungle again to a van that took them across the border.

“There was no check point where we entered Malaysia. I felt safe and relieved when I made it back into the country.”