INSIDE a cramped flat beside a motorway in Puchong, a suburb of Kuala Lumpur, 13 Rohingyas jostle for space. Rows of washing, rather than pictures, hang along grimy white walls. Rubbish is stacked on two mouldy refrigerators. The only furniture in the main room is a sideboard stuffed with bedding, for when the adults—who spend their time doing odd jobs, such as collecting waste or selling scrap—come back at the end of the day to sleep on the floor. Several are gaunt, and complain of eating only one or two meals a day. With little else to play with, a toddler sucks on a metal padlock as if it were a toy.
Rohingyas are a Muslim minority who live in Rakhine state in largely Buddhist Myanmar. Over the past five months some 680,000 of them have fled to Bangladesh to escape a pogrom conducted by the Burmese army and their Buddhist neighbours. They now live in crowded and unhygienic shantytown camps just over the border. In theory, the Burmese...Continue reading
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