Voices on the move

I’m an 18-year-old Rohingya girl, living in Bangladesh since 2017. I wasn’t even 10 when my family and I left Myanmar. We didn’t want to go, we wanted to be recognised as citizens of Myanmar, but the government wouldn’t let us. They called us “stateless” and they were killing lots of us. Near our village, all women, pregnant women and girls over the age of 18 were taken to a police/military office and burned alive. The Myanmar government burned one of my relatives in that office. So we had to flee or they would harm and kill us too. Nobody wants to leave their own country, but we were forced to do so.

I don’t want to ever see smugglers again. Whenever I move, I want to do so legally.

I don’t know why we chose to come to Bangladesh. I was little and just followed my parents. Bangladesh is the nearest country and it’s also a Muslim country. We thought that maybe the Bangladeshi people would help us, and they did help us a lot in the beginning. When we were travelling to Bangladesh, in the middle of the night, we met some smugglers who held us at knife point and forced us to pay BDT 30,000 (approximately, USD 247) per person to continue on our journey. After that encounter, we managed to arrive in Bangladesh safely by boat. I don’t want to ever see smugglers again. Whenever I move, I want to do so legally.

I lived in a camp for five years. There was some access to education, but not to higher education. I studied there for one year and then I had to stop, until one of my friends told me about an opportunity to study at a university. My family didn’t want me to go ahead with my studies, because in my community it’s uncommon for women to get higher education. Yet I didn’t let them stop me. Since starting university, my life has changed, and I’m a lot more independent.

Being a refugee is becoming very risky now, and I think it’s going to get worse.

The situation in the camps surrounding Cox’s Bazar is becoming very dangerous. In the past, we had a lot of donations. Now, the Bangladeshi people kidnap Rohingya babies and take money from us. Being a refugee is becoming very risky now, and I think it’s going to get worse. Since funding has been cut, informal learning centres in the camps have been closed, so no one can get an education. In the past, I received everything at the camp: food, shelter, basic education, everything. When we came to Bangladesh first, we received a lot of support, but now it’s decreasing, I think because the Bangladeshi people are tired of us.

My dream is to keep studying and I’d like to go abroad to do that. I want to be a business woman. They offered me some study opportunities in Canada and Japan, but then they withdrew them because I don’t have a passport or citizenship. I only have a refugee card, but they rejected it. I’d like to apply for resettlement, but I don’t know how to. I want to go to Switzerland, because I have some books about it and I know about its history. It seems like a very nice country – it’s my favourite country, in fact, and there are lots of good universities. But if I can’t go there, I will try Canada.

I don’t know if migration will become easier or harder, but I know that people will keep moving, and sometimes they will do so in dangerous ways.

I’m very young but I’ve faced so many challenges. I saw burnt houses and people. Everyone hates us. People in Myanmar hate us because we’re stateless. People at the university hate us too. They discriminate against us a lot. One of my cousins went to a Bangladeshi school after the school illegally asked for BDT 700,000 (approximately, USD 5700) from his family to allow him to attend. When they heard he was a Rohingya boy, they punished him. The teacher removed him from the school even though the school had already taken this money. We want education but nobody gives us access to higher education. I don’t know if migration will become easier or harder, but I know that people will keep moving, and sometimes they will do so in dangerous ways. People my age, for example, went to Malaysia by boat because of the situation in the camp.

Everyone wants to be free, no one wants to be a refugee. We have a motherland and a hometown and home country, but they forced us to leave everything. That’s why we are refugees.

I would like for the international community and leaders to understand what being a refugee means, and to explain and advocate about our journey and our situation. We are innocent people, we never wanted to leave our country. We were forced. They discriminated against us, they burned our hometown, they looted everything, they raped our mothers and sisters.

Everyone wants to be free, no one wants to be a refugee. We have a motherland and a hometown and home country, but they forced us to leave everything. That’s why we are refugees.

It would be great if the Bangladeshi government and international community gave refugees access to things like work, this would definitely change their lives. So far, we’ve been relying on rations and donations, but I don’t want to depend on that. I want to be independent. If the government allowed refugees to work freely, this would hopefully change things for the better.

One day I will write a book about my experiences. I want people to understand our situation, our journey and the challenges that we experienced, both in Myanmar and in the camp. I want people to understand what refugees go through by sharing my life as a refugee.