Page 140 - Beautiful Rohingyas

138 Beautiful Rohingyas

hone. If your house, which by the way can only
be wooden, burns down by mistake, you will face
up to six years in prison.

2) Migrate somewhere else. But go where? Bangla-
desh, although itself a Muslim country, chooses to close
its doors in the faces of these traumatized people cram-
med onto makeshift boats, leaves them stranded in the
ocean and most of the time, those boats sink with
everyone onboard. What are the other options? Go
to Thailand, and if they accept you (though unli-
kely), risk being captured by human traffickers

and sold as slaves (Reuters recently uncove-
red a massive human trafficking scheme
that involved Thai immigration officers.)
However, most of the time Thailand
doesn't accept these people and leaves
them stranded at sea. There is even foo-
tage of people being handcuffed and

pushed into the sea from behind by Thai
officials. Malaysia graciously offers a
home to these poor people, but it is a
distant land to reach with such unreli-
able boats. The USA has recently offe-
red shelter to some and although the
act is highly laudable, the numbers are
incredibly low and therefore far from
being a real solution to the ordeal of the

world's most persecuted people.

As hard as it is to believe, these pain-
ful incidents are happening as you read