Rohingya Life

Smugglers responsible for mass atrocities in Thailand may be linked to capsized boat carrying refugees from Bangladesh to Malaysia The overloaded boat was carrying about 138 people when it capsized. Photograph: Joynal Abedin/AP Activists fear a dangerous transnational trafficking network is being revived after at least 16 Rohingya refugees drowned in the Bay of Bengal on Tuesday morning.  Bangladeshi officials said a wooden fishing boat carrying about 138 people capsized near Bangladesh’s St Martin’s island in the early hours.  A joint statement by the International Organization for Migration and the UN refugee agency said at least 68 people had been rescued.  The UN estimated that more than 170,000 people were trafficked to south-east Asia by boat from 2012–2015, when Thailand found mass graves at detention camps used to hold the refugees until family members paid ransoms.  The network had been largely dormant since then but fears of new act...

Since yesterday I have been in shock after I heard the news of a boat sinking that was carrying my Rohingya brothers and sisters. Many are missing and 15 were confirmed dead on Tuesday when that boat carrying about 130 people capsized in the Bay of Bengal while trying to to reach Malaysia.  This is not something new to the Cox's Bazar district in Bangladesh or Myanmar. It’s just a continuation of the stream of sad news my community has to suffer but it brought me to tears. What a terrible waste of life! It reminded me a journey into the unknown exactly 5 years ago, a journey that I would have never expected to happen when I was forced to get on boat. In that moment, my mind filled with questions. What if the hijacker kills me or demands a huge amount of money from me or my family? What if the boat sinks? What if the trafficker kill me? I was reminded of two people who lost their lives on the boat from September to ...