A short interview with Society for Threatened Peoples (STP)
Mohammed Rafique spent 17 years in Bangladeshi refugee camps. Nowadays he is a Project Coordinator of Schools Across Borders and a Council Member of The European Rohingya Council (ERC). Ilaria Cimino spoke with him about his life and his important work on behalf of the Rohingya.
- Where are you from?
I am from Burma/Myanmar. I was born in 1982 in Keramoitta Fara, Akyab (Sittwe) Arakan State.
- When did you leave your homeland?
- How was the journey to Bangladesh? Do you remember anything?
I don't remember a lot. I was small and frightened. We were in a group of approximately 300 people. We walked sometimes and sometimes we used boats. The boats were crowded. I thought we might be sink. I didn't know where we were going. It was may be February. On the way police stopped us. At first they didn't allow us to cross the border. But at the end, we got permission to go to Bangladesh giving them some money. Finally, we arrived in a refugee camp. It was so risky.
- How was life in the refugee camp?
I grew up in the camp. I spent my childhood and my teenage years in the camp. Life in a refugee camp is not a life when I compare it to my life here in Ireland or to the life people live who are free. In the refugee camp you are not free. You live in a limited space and live on gift of food also you are not allowed to go outside. We left our village in Burma because we were persecuted by the police and the army. But life in Bangladesh was not safer or better than the life we left behind. We faced the same in Bangladesh refugee camp. Even we were not allowed to move freely there, within the camp territory.
I have lived in three different refugee camps in Bangladesh. And I have bad memories of all of them. From 1992 to 1993 at Rangikhali camp, under Teknaf thana(sub district). 1993 to 1995 at Soirla Dhaba camp, under Ukhiya thana and 1995 to 2009 at Kutapalong Camp.
In Bangladesh, during the 1990s there were 19 registered camps, run by the UNHCR. At the end of 1993 the Bangladesh government with the help of the UNHCR started a repatriation campaign. It was a forcefull repatriation but they called it "voluntary repatriation", it was not voluntary at all. The Rohingya were forced to leave Bangladesh and were sent back to Burma, where Rohingya still faces persecution and human rights violations. They sent most of us back, those who had to go to face death. Yes, We wanted to go back to Burma, but only if the government of Bangladesh could guarantee our security of humanity.
- Did you go to school in the camps?
When I left Burma, there was no rights to education in the camp. Even if police got any books they beat and token away them. But we got the allowance to study ourselves on 1997-98. UNHCR built some primary schools (from basic to fifth grade) on 1999. There was no school accessory for people of my age. I had to take private lessons at home.
-So how do people spend their days in the camps?
They hardly earn their lifes in a slam. Always they feel chicken hearted. They are not allowed to go out without permission. Though some go out in need they face arbitrary arrest and lotted. Anyhow Young people don't have much to do in the camps. Only a few NGOs are providing professional training. I worked as a social volunteer for UNHCR. My family is still living in the camp.
- So how do people spend their days in the camps?
People are frightened. Young people don’t have much to do in the camps. They are not allowed to leave the camps without permission. Only a few NGOs are providing professional training. I worked as a volunteer for UNHCR. My family is still living in the camp.
- Is there violence in the camps?
There is a lot of violence. Bangladeshi local authorities were taking advantage of our plight. Rohingya often become the victims of human traffickers from Bangladesh and neighboring countries. Local gangs from outside the camps enter the premises, loot, rape women and girls, kidnap them in order to have them forcefully married to locals. If anyone dare to hinder them they are lodged to false and fabricated cases and send to jail.
- How did you get to Ireland?
In 2008 the UNHCR selected my wife, our daughter and me for a special relocation program in collaboration with the Irish Ministry of Integration. We underwent a year- long process of interviews with the Irish authorities and in 2009 a group of 78 members was flown to Ireland from Bangladesh in the same process. The people here in Ireland are so accommodating, they helped us a lot. We spent six weeks in the Ballyhaunis Refugee Orientation Training Centre where we were taught how to get along in Ireland: how the education and healthcare system works, and common cultural activities of Ireland.
- Where do you and your family live now?
We live in Carlow. There are 95 of us here.
- You have a blog called “Stateless Rohingya”…It started out as my personal blog. Now I focus on my community and changed the name into “Stateless Rohingya”. I support my community, not only in Ireland but also in Burma and Bangladesh. I try to explain our culture and what is happening to us. At the same time I am working hard helping to integrate my community here into the larger Irish society.
Photo Carlow Rohingya Cricket Team
We offer lots of activities for the young. We have a football team and just founded a cricket club. The idea arose when a child said that one day he wanted to become a cricket player. I coach young kids as well.
- Is there a thought, an idea that you want to share with us?
Sure. I want the government of Burma to end its policy of ethnic cleansing towards the Rohingya. You know, there are many villages like the one I grew up in, where people don’t have enough to eat. Children starve to death because people are afraid to leave their village out of fear of Buddhist violence. These people need help! Humanitarian organizations must be allowed access these villages.
The government needs to start a campaign against hunger. It also needs to restore the citizenship the Rohingya.
