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MORE THAN 600,000 Rohingya people have fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar since violence broke out in Rakhine State on 25 August – over half of them children.
Babies born in Balukhali camp often come into the world with no clothes, no clean water to be bathed in and nowhere for their birth to be registered. They are the unseen, stateless children of the Rohingya.
Anwara, 17, gave birth a week ago. She arrived at Balukhali camp in the first week of September.
“We fled because people were shooting at us. It took us five days to get here. Sometimes I slipped back and my stomach hurt. It was a hard journey.
I’ve only been married for a year and I’m so worried about my husband. I try to get information about him, but I can’t – there is no way to.
“During the day, I look after my daughter. She’s got a rash… I can’t go to the doctor because the queues are long and I can’t stand for long periods of time.”
Dilduha, 23, arrived at Balukhali camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh in September. Her baby boy is seven days old.
“Our house was set on fire so we fled. It was a long, hard journey. We slept in fishermen’s huts and hid in the jungle, as well as in the hills.
“At the moment my son is not very well and I’m worried about him, so that is my main concern. I didn’t have any clothes to dress him in when he was born.”
Mondaz, 26, cradles her 22-day-old daughter in her arms
“People were burning houses in our area, that was why we left. It took us 8 days to get here, hiding in the hills and the forest. We had to stay on an island too. We were too scared to sleep.
“I had to go to hospital to give birth because I was having difficulties during labour. It was in the neighbouring camp, and I stayed in overnight. I was meant to go back for a check-up after four to five days, but I haven’t been because I can’t afford to.”
Jomila, 25, arrived at Balukhali camp in the first week of September. Her baby is eight days old.
“Three days after I gave birth I was in severe pain. I was close to death, so my husband managed to get me to the hospital. I’m still taking medicine to help me get better.
“My husband goes to collect water every day. He sleeps during the day now, because at night time he volunteers with four other men to protect the area. We heard that there are people with weapons who have been coming into the camp at night, so we’re ready if they come here.”
Aisha, 20, arrived at Balukhali camp about a month ago.
“I gave birth 5 days after I arrived. After walking for days I reached the border, but the army wouldn’t allow me to cross the river. I felt so ill I thought I was going to die. It wasn’t until I started to cry, that they helped me across.
“I have one other daughter, aged four, and one son, aged three. They are both really sick now. One has a fever and the other has diarrhoea.
“It’s very cold here at night and I don’t have enough to keep the baby warm. I couldn’t bring anything with me from home – the house was burned to the ground.”
Yasmin, 20, gave birth to her daughter 3 days after arriving at the camp. Her baby is now 15 days old.
“Our tent wasn’t even built when I gave birth. One older lady and my sister helped me with the delivery. We just had to cover the area as best we could to try and get some privacy.
It was a very sudden labour so I had no time to go anywhere else. Also, it was raining, so the ground was just completely flooded. We weren’t even able to cook because there was no firewood. I feel very weak and my baby isn’t doing so well either.
“I’m having difficulty producing enough milk for her, so I have to supplement her feeding with rice-water.”
Rashida, 27, gave birth to her daughter three days ago. She arrived at the camp seven days before that with her four other children
“Our children have no clothes. My daughter is getting sick – she has diarrhoea. We just have to wash her clothes when she soils them – we don’t have any nappies.
“There was no water here when we arrived, and no toilets either. We dug a hole to get water, but it was dirty. So it’s been hard to keep things clean when the water itself is dirty.”
All photos courtesy of Plan International.
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Have a funny feeling we ain’t getting the full story about what’s going on there.
@Dick Durkin: Do we ever get the full story from anywhere??
@Mick12: exactly, but we’re only getting one side of it here.
@Dick Durkin: what you mean? You saying its tge pregnant women attacking the armed men in a clever plot.
@Dick Durkin: You reckon these women had it coming Dick? That is what your trying to say isn’t it?
@Ron North: He said nothing of the sort. Stop being so dramatic. He’s simply pointing out that there are 2 sides to every story. Here’s some facts. That area of Burma was occupied entirely by Burmese people prior to 1850. When the British took over the region, they imported Muslims from nearby Bengal to work as the natives refused. Since then, their numbers have increased so much that they are now the majority. It is completely wrong to attack a pregnant woman and force them to leave their hone but bear in mind that Muslims are using high birth rates as a weapon against other peoples.
Dick
@The Foreigner:
Centuries ago during the time of Mohammed when he and his followers were refugees, the Jews took him and his followers in and gave them sanctuary in the majority Jewish city of Medina in what is today Saudi Arabia, within 5 years he had taken over the city and banished and enslaved the Jews.
Today there are no Jews in Saudi Arabia.
@Remy: What on earth does that have to do with the attempted genocide of the Rohingya?
@Tom Allen: “It is completely wrong to attack a pregnant woman and force them to leave their home, but bear in mind that Muslims are using high birth rates against other peoples.”
Do you understand how English works? The word “but” in this sentence followed by a stupid excuse is negating the part where you said it was wrong and attempting to justify the acts above.
You are actually saying that they had it coming in response to my question.
@Ron North: The individual women don’t deserve it. They are being used by their masters(muslim men) so I do feel for them but Burma belongs to the Burmese and these Rohingya people must go back to their own homeland in Bangladesh.
@The Foreigner: u r just pure ignorant? Lovely turn of phrase. Ha ha. You’re telling me to learn how to read and write. I’ve done my research and come to the conclusion that Burma belongs to the Burmese. I just don’t like to see innocent women hurt. Hopefully the UN can find a way to move the Rohigya people back to their own country(Bangladesh).
@Tom Allen: Maybe when they’re finished doing that they can bring all the Irish that have been born abroad since 1850 in countries that don’t belong to them back to their own country (Ireland) as well.
Why don’t other Muslim countries in the general area come to rescue of those people, why is it the western Christian countries that are continually hounded, for funding and humanitarian assistance, is it that the Muslim countries are less Christian in their treatment of fellow Muslims I guess we are succors in the western Christian countries. To our deterement
@John Nolan: well if you researched it then youll see that loads of muslim countries do. The surrounding areas should do more but thats life. Some people are pr1cks
@John Nolan: Carving up humanity amongst religions there lad?
A
I feel sorry for these people like all others that are displaced around the world. It looks like the UN is saying a lot but it’s only a talking body and Aung Sang Suki is a puppet President for the army. All the glory but no power whatsoever. It’s like everyone one else should help but not the government of the country the problems start from. I don’t know what I’m trying to say I’m just confused and annoyed with so much hurt, harm, inequality and so called religious problems that are/is happening constantly.
@Mick12: It’s very sad to hear those stories and hoping something can be done to help them. As the other commenter said, we are only getting one side of the story from MSM. I suspect there is a lot more to it. I did some research online and it seems these Rohingya people speak a dialect of Bengali and were brought in by the British to work the land when they ruled this area. Seems like this conflict is yet another legacy of colonial era. But all we hear is evil Burmese regime ….persecution of relugious minority…blah blah blah
@The Foreigner: you are a bit dramatic and inn your comparison you forget one thing that is called Integration.
@The Foreigner: nobody was brought here….they came of their own volition
@The Foreigner: I never said anybody should be killed but if you are living in someone else’s country, you need to assimilate and respect the native population. It’s not right to carve your own country out of another because you have moved there in large numbers and out populated the native people. The British did this in Ulster and also Burma. And if you’re going to respond to my comments, please read them, I don’t condone violence anywhere in what I said. That will be all folks.
Quick , get Veronica
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