Life On The Brink

THE WEEK travels to the world's largest refugee settlement where 12 lakh Rohingyas struggle for dignity and purpose

- Sumitra Nair

Hazy air encircles Camp 11 in the Ukhiya subdistrict of Cox’s Bazar, 400km south of Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka. There is ash everywhere, covering the smouldering remains of hutments destroyed in a massive fire on March 6. A cloud of emptiness sits heavy on the inmates. Zuhura Begum’s eyes reflect it: they look vacant, just like the land around her, which hosts the world largest refugee settlement. Nearly 12 lakh Rohingyas from Myanmar live here in multiple camps; everyday life remains a struggle.

“What is left?” asks Zuhura, leaning against the bamboo poles that once held her house together. Trying to console her five-month-old baby, Zuhura says she is not able to feed him. “I cannot produce any milk. The rations are not enough.”

Zuhura, 24, has been surviving on rations from the World Food Programme (WFP) of the United Nations. Her family has no source of income. The fire destroyed her shelter as well. Her only remaining possessions are in a trunk that she carried with her while fleeing Myanmar—mostly documents.

A family of four gets about 10 kilograms of rice and lentils each month at the camp. But that is only for those with ration cards, which Zuhura’s family does not have. “We left everything behind in Myanmar and now what little we have is also taken. This is witchcraft,” she says.

Some distance away, at Camp 4, we meet 25-year-old Anwar Hasan. He thought he had lost everything when he was in his homeland—the Rakhine state of Myanmar, which is about 100km from Cox’s Bazar. Nearly six years after he joined a huge wave of Rohingyas fleeing to neighbouring Bangladesh following persecution from Myanmarese authorities, he is now worried about his future.