Why Rohingya Are Fleeing the Refugee Camps and What They Actually Want

By Ahtaram Shin

Nine people survived, including Tawfiq, who survived using a bottle in the Andaman Sea. Art By Somiha Rohim

For nearly nine years, the Rohingya have lived in refugee camps in Bangladesh, waiting for a safe and dignified return to their homeland. Yet after all these years, there is still no meaningful assurance of rights, no clear pathway to citizenship, no sustainable livelihood, and no realistic prospect of repatriation.

For many Rohingya, camp life has become a life of waiting without an end. Education opportunities are limited. Livelihood opportunities are severely restricted. Movement is controlled. Humanitarian assistance is declining, while insecurity, trafficking, extortion and other forms of exploitation continue to affect the camps.

Young people are growing up without knowing what their future will look like. This is why some Rohingya are taking extraordinary risks to leave the camps.

They are not necessarily leaving because they want to settle permanently in Malaysia or another country. Many are simply searching for a way to survive, earn money and support their families until the day they can return home.

As Khin Khin Nu, a Rohingya, explained:

“The Rohingya have been going to Malaysia or other countries not to seek rights or permanent settlement. They are going there to support their families and live a minimal life unless they can go back home. Just give them a space, and they will go back within a second.”

That is the reality behind many of these dangerous journeys. Today's haters are saying that they are running away from home. The world often sees a Rohingya refugee boarding a boat and assumes that person has chosen to abandon their homeland. But for many Rohingya, the truth is completely opposite.

Their ultimate destination is still Arakan. The problem is that they cannot return safely today. The political and military situation in Arakan has changed dramatically. The 'Arakan Army' controls large parts of Rakhine State, while fighting between the 'Arakan Army', Myanmar's military junta and other armed groups continues in different areas. The conditions required for a large-scale, safe and dignified repatriation simply do not exist.

Yet the world's supper power is widely attempting to collaborate with Myanmar armed groups, AA and other geopolitical regions to get Arakan and Bay of Bengal natural resources. In this interest, they made Rohingya their main subjects and central dice.

The most hilarious things that Malaysian authorities discussed with Myanmar's military junta to repatriate 5000 Rohingya and 3000 from Bangladesh who has no control in Arakan where Rohingya we will go. Whereas Rohingya still agreed to go back whatever the condition but shortly afterward, Malaysian authorities indicated that repatriation would not proceed unless conditions in Arakan were safe and conducive.

Meanwhile the host countries are discussing repatriation. But yet it remained as a discussion. Is this a scripted drama show or doing something for Rohingya community. They kept Rohingya as like quarantine where they have almost no future and facing immense hardship. So what are Rohingya actually supposed to do?

“We just want a chance to live in our land Arakan instead of being a geopolitical interest for many countries and capitalism, said Sahat Zia Hero”

Based on many statements of Rohingya people, they are not actually demanding to permanently belong to Malaysia, Bangladesh, Indonesia or any other country. They want Arakan where they can live safely, work, educate their children and support their families and work together with all other ethnic people of that region. Otherwise, there is no possibility to ensure Rohingya's any rights in their slow justice mechanism.

Ali Jinnah Hussein, a Rohingya, put it simply: “We, Rohingya, have no problem going back to Arakan without rights and safety because we know it is our responsibility to work for our rights and stay together by creating peaceful co-existence who has power in the region.”

This does not mean that the Rohingya should be denied rights or protection. It means that many Rohingya are desperate enough to return even under extremely difficult circumstances because they would rather struggle in their own homeland than spend their entire lives in a refugee camp. For them, home is more important than comfort.

Today there are no way to go back or make a fair living conditions for Rohingya anywhere in the displacement so they are taking the most dangerous alternative.

As Rohingya people have no legal way to work, limited access to education, restricted movement and no clear future. So, traffickers and robbers find an opportunity. They promise jobs, safety, resettle third by taking in Malaysia or Indonesia. They promise a better life for the person and their families. During the harsh times of life challenges, smugglers words desperate Rohingya to believe them.

A recent boat drowning 271 people death and nine survive among them Tawfiq is one of them.

He says he was taken from the Kutupalong refugee camp after being promised work. Instead, he was detained, forced onto an overcrowded boat and subjected to starvation, dehydration, suffocation and violence.

When the boat eventually sank, he survived by holding onto an empty two-litre plastic bottle. Approximately 280 people were reportedly on the vessel. Tawfiq says only nine survived. Two hundred and seventy-one people disappeared into the Andaman Sea.

Instead of asking only, “Why are Rohingya fleeing the camps? “Why have Rohingya reached a point where risking death at sea appears better than remaining in the camps?”

If a person knows that a journey could end with drowning, trafficking, torture or death, but still chooses to take that journey, it tells us something about the conditions they are escaping from. It does not mean every Rohingya who leaves the camp is making the right decision. It means the desperation behind that decision cannot be ignored.

The answer is not simply to stop boats. The answer is to stop the conditions that make those boats attractive.

What Do Rohingya Actually Want?

At the heart of all these dangerous journeys, the demands of ordinary Rohingya are simple to live. They want to work. They want to educate their children. They want to support their families. They want freedom from traffickers and kidnappers. They want dignity. And above all, they want to return to their homeland. They do not want to spend their entire lives as refugees. They do not want their children to grow up in camps without a future. They do not want to die in the Andaman Sea. They want Arakan.

But until returning to Arakan becomes possible, they also need a place where they can live with dignity. If the international community cannot provide a safe pathway home, it must at least provide Rohingya with the opportunity to live, work, study and move safely while they wait.

Otherwise, people will continue to choose between two terrible options: a life without a future in the camp, or a dangerous journey toward an uncertain future at sea.

And sometimes, all a desperate person has between life and death is an empty plastic bottle.