Skip to main content

Desperation drives more Rohingya onto smugglers' boats

Dire living conditions in a place like Bangladesh's Leda makeshift site have contributed to the Rohingya leaving on dangerous boat journeys in the hope of finding a more stable life elsewhere.

Source By UNHCR:


COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh, January 22 (UNHCR) – They sail in searchof safety, education, a better life, a future. But many die along the way. Those who survive face the prospect of detention, bonded labour or furtive lives as undocumented workers in an alien country.

In 2012, an estimated 13,000 people – among them the Rohingya from western Myanmar as well as Bangladeshi nationals – left the Bay of Bengal on smugglers' boats. Given the rough seas and often rickety condition of the boats, many never made it to their destination. Some 485 people are reported to have drowned in four boat accidents in the Bay of Bengal, though the real death toll is believed to be much higher.


So why are more and more Rohingya taking the dangerous voyage? Many of the Rohingya in Bangladesh say that while life was always hard in exile, the inter-communal violence back home in Myanmar last June and October dashed any hope for a solution to their protracted situation.

"Life was tough in Myanmar, and it's tough here," said Aisha, who fled persecution in western Myanmar's northern Rakhine state 20 years ago and sought refuge in neighbouring Bangladesh. "That's why my husband and my brother went to Malaysia – to find a better life."

Azu Mehir, 48, said her 20-year-old son Shab Uddin wanted to study more English but was frustrated by government restrictions on secondary education in Bangladesh's two official refugee camps, Kutupalong and Nayapara. "He was a good student but he got frustrated and left," she said. "We looked everywhere for him. After 13 days, I got a call."

The call can be a blessing or a curse. For refugee families who thought their men were lost at sea, it brings the good news that they are still alive. For parents who didn't even know their children had hopped on a smuggler's boat, it is practically a death knell.

Sara cries when she talks about her 17-year-old son, who secretly left with three friends on a boat in mid-November. "The smugglers called to say they are holding him in Thailand," she wept in Kutupalong camp. "They beat him two times every day, now his body is swollen. They want us to pay 175,000 taka [more than US$2,160] to the agent in Bangladesh or they will kill him."

Aisha's husband and brother are also being detained by smugglers in Thailand. "They didn't tell me before they left," she said. "If I'd known, I would've stopped them from going." There are reports that smuggled men whose families cannot make the required payment are sold to fishing boats where they could work many months to pay off the debt.

While it is mostly single young men who make the journey, the clandestine nature of these irregular movements makes it hard to ascertain how many are Rohingya who fled Myanmar for Bangladesh over the years, how many fled the recent violence back home, and how many are Bangladeshi.

There are also reports that women and children are joining the ranks. In Kutupalong camp, a woman approached UNHCR to say that her son-in-law had arranged for his wife and child to be smuggled to join him in Malaysia. But she later received a call from a smuggler asking for money for their release.

Even those who make it to Malaysia do not have it easy. Fatama Hatun's husband left their home in Bangladesh's Leda makeshift site eight months ago. From Malaysia, he sent money home twice but the money stopped coming in October. Fatama has not heard from him since, but heard he had been arrested for not having documents.
Azu's son, Shab, is now working on a construction site in Malaysia. "It is difficult for a frail young boy to carry heavy sacks of cement," she said. "He works every two days because he cannot take the heavy work. After working the whole day, he gets 40 ringgit (US$13). But he needs to buy food and share a place with others. I don't think he is saving any money."

But that has not stopped him from dreaming of greener pastures. "If he had known life was so hard in Malaysia, he wouldn't have gone," his mother said. "But now he'll try to go somewhere else."

While the men may not hesitate to risk their lives for the vague possibility of a brighter future, they leave their loved ones behind to fend for themselves. "Life has been miserable since he left," said Fatama as her husband sits in an immigration detention centre awaiting UNHCR intervention. At 25, she is now responsible for their two children. "I beg for a living but I don't know what we will do in future."

Aisha, too, can barely support her family in Bangladesh. There is no way she can raise the 150,000 taka needed for her husband's release in Thailand. "After he left, we are suffering a lot because of the poverty," she said. "My son is not even nine, but he goes to the villages to pick up recycled items and sells them in the market."

As the cycle of poverty, persecution and desperation deepens, the Rohingya are becoming even more vulnerable to exploitation by unscrupulous smugglers. Caught between the devil and the deep blue sea, they may see no other option but to go with the flow, wherever it takes them.

*Names changed for protection reasons
By Vivian Tan in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Rohingya MP U Shwe Maung undergoes questioning

Rohingya MP U Shwe Maung By Kayleigh Long Myanmar Times February 07, 2014 Union Solidarity and Development Party MP U Shwe Maung has been questioned by police in Nay Pyi Taw over comments he made to Democratic Voice of Burma about possible police involvement in a fire that broke out in a Muslim village in Rakhine State late last month. More than a dozen homes were destroyed in the blaze at Du Chee Yar Tan West village near Maungdaw in northern Rakhine State on January 28. U Shwe Maung said the February 4 interrogation came at the behest of President U Thein Sein, who sent a letter to Pyidaungsu Hluttaw Speaker Thura U Shwe Mann requesting permission for police question the MP. The interview lasted about 90 minutes and was conducted at his USDP living quarters in Nay Pyi Taw. It focused on allegations that U Shwe Maung, a Rohingya, had defamed the state and police by saying that residents believed security forces were involved in starting the fire. ...

ERC representatives and Dr.Maung Zarni partook a seminar in Sweden

ERC Delegation Meet Dr. Zarni Mohamed Farooq ( Mayu Press) May 7, 2013 The Stockholm University of Sweden held a seminar on “Forum for Asian Studies” at William Olsson Hall, the department of geological science on 3rd May 2013. It depicts Rohingya tragedy and Human Right Eradication in western Burma. Burma (Myanmar) is a nation with ambition to make their name and discharge their White Man’s Burden, one of the world’s hottest assignments in the world of diplomats, development consultants, NGO experts and academic researchers, a lucrative ‘frontier’ market for investors, venture capitalists and multinationals, a must-go for both citizen-tourists and global luminaries. This lecture will critically discuss the rose-tinted view of reforms in Burma against the troubling realties as lived by the people of that country, including full-scale Rohingya genocide of 40 years, the 60-years of Burmese army’s un-ending internal colonial wars against the Christian Kachins, the Kare...

রোহিঙ্গা শরণার্থীদের কোনো ভবিষ্যৎ নেই

বাংলাদেশের আশ্রয়শিবিরে বসবাসকারী রোহিঙ্গা শরণার্থীদের কোনোই ভবিষ্যৎ নেই বলে মন্তব্য করেছেন রোহিঙ্গা বিষয়ক আইনজীবী রাজিয়া সুলতানা। তিনি এই আশ্রয়শিবিরকে চিড়িয়াখানার সঙ্গে তুলনা করেছেন এবং রোহিঙ্গাদের ফেরত পাঠানোর জন্য একটি উপযুক্ত কৌশল নির্ধারণের আহ্বান জানিয়েছেন। কয়েকদিন আগে যুক্তরাষ্ট্রের পররাষ্ট্র মন্ত্রণালয়ের ইন্টারন্যাশনাল ওমেন অব কারেজ এওয়ার্ড (আইডব্লিউসিএ) পুরস্কার পান রাজিয়া সুলতানা। সাহসিকতা দেখানোর জন্য সারা বিশ্ব থেকে বাছাই করা ১০ জন নারীকে এ পুরস্কার দেয়া হয়।  রাজিয়া সুলতানার একটি সাক্ষাৎকার নিয়েছে বার্তা সংস্থা রয়টার্স। তাতে তিনি রোহিঙ্গাদের পরিণতি নিয়ে হতাশা প্রকাশ করেন। রাজিয়া সুলতানা বলেন, মিয়ানমারের মুসলিম সংখ্যালঘু সম্প্রদায়ের রোহিঙ্গা শরণার্থীদের মধ্যে আশার অভাব রয়েছে। ২০১৭ সালের আগস্টে মিয়ানমারের সেনাবাহিনীর নৃশংস নির্যাতনের ফলে তারা পালিয়ে এসে বাংলাদেশে আশ্রয় নিতে বাধ্য হয়। রাজিয়া সুলতানা বলেন, এই আশ্রয় শিবিরে যত বেশি সময় শরণার্থীরা থাকবেন ততই পরিস্থিতির অবনতি ঘটতে থাকবে। ওই সাক্ষাৎকারে তিনি আরো বলেন, হ্যাঁ, এ কথা সত্য যে, শরণার্থীরা খাবার পাচ্ছে। কিন...