Rohingya Muslim refugees - 'the young and the hopeless'

The mass genocide against the Muslim minority of Myanmar that began in June 2012 and continues to date by military president, Thein Sein, and opposition leader, Aung Kan Su Chi (a.k.a. Jabhat al-Nusra of the East), is not the first of its kind in the country.  The minority Muslim population of Myanmar (Burma) known as the Rohingyas have been suffering persecution since decades only because of the choice of their faith.  They have been denied citizenship even though they are the native and indigenous people of that land.

Since years they have been left with no other choice but to flee their ancestral homes in Myanmar to save their lives.  Since the 1990s many took refuge in neighboring Bangladesh as refugees living in camps.  But arriving in refugee camps in Bangladesh doesn't resolve much of their problems except for not fearing to get killed.

The UN refugee agency has been releasing reports from inside Rohingya Muslim camps in Bangladesh, where many have been living for years after being forced to leave their native homes in Burma/Myanmar.

According to those in exile - about 30,000 - one of the biggest roadblock to any sort of independence is lack of access to education.   Even though they get some sort of edible food and a bit of medical care, but no education .. let alone acquiring the means for higher education.

“There are more and more boys like me in the camp,” said Hasan Sharif, 16, whose family fled Rakhine state in Myanmar in the 1990s. “They don’t have anything.  They want to get a secondary certificate. They hope to be engineers, pilots, sailors. But if they don’t get an opportunity for some education outside of the camp, how can they improve their life?”

This desperation is causing even more Rohingya to flee from these camps.   They are taking to the seas, turning over their lives to the unknown waters, often getting caught by human traffickers.

They sail in search of safety, education, a better life, a future. But many die along the way. Those who survive face the prospect of detention, bonded labor or furtive lives as undocumented workers in an alien country.

Given the rough seas and often rickety condition of the boats, many never made it to their destination.  Hundreds drown in boat accidents in the Bay of Bengal.

Thailand has given its deadline by officially stating that it will keep the Muslim refugees who fled Myanmar to save their lives for only 6 more months.

The pan-Islamic state consists of scores of countries and a population of 1.3 billion Muslims.   The total population of Rohingyas is only 800,000 (less than a million).  Is it so difficult for the Muslim states to convene a conference with plans to allocate only 800,000 people into different Muslim countries?  Even if each Muslim country agrees to take 50,000 Rohingya Muslims willing to work hard and make a future for themselves and help the government of land they are living in, it would only take 16 Muslim countries to come forward and grant immigration.  But the Ummah be damned, it won't even go that far.

Conditions are tough in Teknaf camp. Movements of refugees are restricted. Housing is in need of repair or renewal.


Because there are no regular schools, the children read the Quran at a madrassa or religious learning institute.


Deadly Myanmar, home of the 'Jabhan-al-Nusra' of the East, is on the other side of the river Naaf. The Rohingya Muslims had to cross the river on boats to come over as refugees to Bangladesh.


After collecting woods from nearby hills, a Rohingya Muslim refugee heads back to the camp.