Myanmar’s Missing Rohingya

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/13/world/asia/myanmars-missing-rohingya.html

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At a makeshift government encampment in Sittwe, Myanmar, holding 140,000 Rohingya, a persecuted Muslim ethnic group, I asked camp residents if they had relatives who had traveled to Malaysia.

I was offered a plastic chair, sat down and opened my laptop. A line formed and families began to pour out their stories of grief. Impoverished, desperate and virtually imprisoned, tens of thousands have fled, setting out on a risky sea voyage in search of a better life. Many are still missing.

Family members wanted help in finding them. Brothers and sisters, sons and daughters had boarded boats for Malaysia, hoping to escape the squalor of the camp. But traffickers had demanded ransoms, and often families could not pay.

As I sat in a sliver of shade amid rows of bamboo homes, naked children played in the mud. I typed up as many of the families’ stories as time allowed. — Thomas Fuller

His father, Zahid Hussein, said:

His mother, Gulbahair, said:

Mohamed’s wife, Hasinah Begum, said:

Her aunt, Gulbahar, said:

His mother, Zura Khatu, said:

Fatimah Khatu, Mr. Elias’s sister, said:

His mother, Karlar Banu, said:

His wife, Zura Khatu, said:

The boy’s father, Mohamad Yunnus, said:

Her grandmother, Shamshunisa, said:

His mother, Mariam Khatu, said: