WORLD BRIDGE BLOG

Sayed and Jamil (not their actual names) both came to Malaysia alone as young boys.   They are part of a growing trend in Rohingya families to send unaccompanied minors out of Burma in search of safety and better opportunities for their future.  Neither boy said they felt safe in Malaysia.  In Penang, where they are both currently living, the Rohingya community is constantly under threat of arrest by immigration authorities.

Jamil (right) is thirteen.  He arrived in Malaysia just three months ago.  His parents sent him to Malaysia to escape being taken by the Burmese army for forced labor.  He travelled from his home in Northern Rakhine State to Bangladesh, where he waited twenty days to catch a boat to Thailand.  He spent two weeks at sea on the boat.  When he arrived in Thailand he was arrested and taken to the Burmese border where he was picked up by agents who agreed to take him to the Thai-Malaysia border.  Thankfully, Jamil was able to meet his uncle at the border, who paid the agents for Jamil’s release.  Jamil is now completely dependent on his uncle. He has talked with his family twice to tell them that he arrived safely in Malaysia.  He proudly states that he can read and write a little bit of Burmese. Though he was able to study until the second grade in Burma, he has no access to school in Malaysia.  

Sayed (left) is fourteen.  He left Burma three years ago alone.  Sayed’s family sent him away because they could no longer afford to raise him.  Like Jamil, he went from his home in Northern Rakhine State to Bangladesh, where he spent one month waiting for transportation arranged by an agent on a boat to Thailand.  After arriving in Thailand, Sayed’s uncle brought him across the Malaysian border to his home in Penang.  His uncle paid roughly $700 to the agent for Sayed’s transport.  Sayed is also dependent on his uncle.  He never attended school in Burma, and has not been able to receive any education in Malaysia.  He is also not working.  Over the past three years, he has been able to call his family in Burma eight times.  When asked if he would like his family to join him in Malaysia, he says very firmly, “I want to go back home to Burma. I don’t like it here.”

Sean Garcia and Camilla Olson assessed the situation for the Rohingya in Bangladesh and Malaysia in November 2008.  Read their Field Report here.