"Majuma Begum stayed awake until 3am waiting for her son to return from the market before accepting he was not coming home. The next day he phoned to say he was on the Bangladeshi coast, waiting to begin a boat journey to Malaysia that she had desperately tried to stop him taking. It was the start of weeks of worry for the 58-year-old, whose fears deepened when a boat carrying Rohingya refugees capsized near Malaysia in early November, killing dozens."
"Begum's 16-year-old son, Abu Musa, is among thousands from the persecuted Myanmar ethnic minority to have boarded boats in the past two months, according to the Arakan Project, a human rights organisation based in the region that tracks Rohingya boat journeys. They are trying to escape the refugee camps in Bangladesh, where despair has set in after aid cuts led to food rations being reduced and health facilities closing, or from Myanmar, where the Muslim minority have faced decades of violence and persecution."
Majuma Begum feared for her son after he left for the Bangladeshi coast and boarded a boat bound for Malaysia. Thousands of Rohingya have made similar sea journeys in recent months, tracked by the Arakan Project. Many are fleeing overcrowded camps in Bangladesh after aid cuts reduced food rations and closed health facilities, while others flee Myanmar following decades of targeted violence and persecution. More than 1.1 million Rohingya live in Bangladesh camps, with large arrivals in 2017 and another 200,000 since 2024. Bangladesh places strict limits on refugees' movement, work, and access to education, and arrivals in Malaysia include young men and women seeking reunification or marriage.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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