00:00More than 3,000 identical houses now stand in neat rows across a Cambodian plain,
00:05forming a vast grid of white walls and green zinc roofs.
00:09From above, the settlement looks almost peaceful.
00:12But for the people living here, these houses are not really home.
00:16They are a waiting village, built by the Cambodian government for families displaced by deadly
00:21fighting along the Thai border.
00:23These homes were meant to provide shelter after months of uncertainty.
00:27For many families, life here is certainly better than living in tents on the grounds of Buddhist
00:33temples.
00:33Each house comes with a small patch of land where residents can grow vegetables.
00:38There are schools, a health center, shops, and small businesses.
00:42People have opened coffee stalls, salons, grocery stores, and roadside shops, trying to rebuild
00:49lives that were shattered by war.
00:51But behind this attempt at normality is a painful question.
00:55When will they be able to go home?
00:58Kiyo Satheri is 39.
01:00Her family had lived in the border village of Boang Trachuan since 1992.
01:05But on December 8th, she fled the fighting.
01:08She has not been able to return since.
01:11Her old home is just around 20 kilometers away.
01:15Yet for her, it might as well be another world.
01:17She says she dreams of going back every day.
01:20And when she speaks about what happened to her home, she struggles to hold back her tears.
01:51The border conflict between Cambodia and Thailand has deep roots.
01:55Fighting erupted in July 2025 over a long-running territorial dispute.
02:01The violence flared again in December before a ceasefire was eventually agreed.
02:06Most displaced Cambodians have since returned home.
02:10But more than 20,000 people remain unable to do so, according to Cambodian authorities,
02:16because Thai forces control areas where they once lived.
02:19Thailand disputes Cambodia's claim.
02:21Bangkok says it has simply reclaimed territory it considers Thailand.
02:26Territory that Cambodian families had occupied for years.
02:30And that disagreement has left thousands of people caught in the middle.
02:34In the new settlement, residents are trying to move forward.
02:38Mkreb arrived in April.
02:40She now runs a small cafe in front of her new house.
02:43Business is going well.
02:45But when she talks about her old home, the place where she spent decades building a life,
02:51the memories return.
02:52She says she still misses everything she left behind.
02:56For now, she doesn't know when she will see it again.
02:58She says she still misses everything she left behind.
03:26Six such waiting villages have been built in the region on land donated by former Cambodian commander-in-chief Ko
03:32Kim Yen.
03:33The government is subsidizing electricity and water, while schoolchildren receive free meals.
03:39During a visit in June, former Cambodian leader Hoon San announced that residents would receive land titles for their new
03:47properties.
03:48A sign that, for many families, this temporary home could become permanent.
03:52But what happened to their old homes is still visible.
03:56On the road leading to Boang Trachuan, shipping containers and barbed wire reportedly block access.
04:02In other disputed villages, journalists found damaged houses, bullet holes in walls and children's toys abandoned on the ground.
04:10In Chowk Chai, an 80-millimeter rocket was still lodged in the middle of a road.
04:15Local officials say homes were destroyed or damaged during the fighting, leaving residents unable to return.
04:22Cambodian rights group Lakato has cited satellite imagery showing more than 600 homes and other structures destroyed in three disputed
04:30villages.
04:30Thailand, however, maintains that the territory is Thai.
04:35The dispute goes back decades.
04:37After the fall of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime in 1979, Thailand welcomed Cambodian refugees into border areas.
04:45Some families stayed.
04:47Now, generations later, the question of who owns this land has become a question of where these families are allowed
04:53to live.
04:53The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Cambodia, Tom Andrews, has said displaced families have the right to
05:01go home.
05:02But for now, home remains behind a border they cannot cross.
05:06Back in the waiting village, Ong Sopat waters vegetables outside her new house.
05:12She says life in the tents was difficult.
05:14This place is better.
05:16But there is another problem.
05:18Many of these families were farmers.
05:21And in this new settlement, there are fewer opportunities to sell what they grow.
05:26For now, government assistance is helping them survive.
05:29But nobody knows how long that support can continue.
05:49Another resident, Kuwinsitha, has opened a small grocery shop.
05:55Her husband sells sugarcane juice from a cart.
05:58Together, they are trying to build something new from what was left behind.
06:02Her words perhaps capture the uncertainty facing thousands of displaced families.
06:18They are building a new life here.
06:24But if the border dispute is resolved, they want to go back.
06:29And if it isn't, they simply don't know what comes next.
06:33For now, thousands of houses stand waiting.
06:36And so do the people living inside them.
06:39You know what's going on.
06:46Let's go.
06:46You
