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Abu Syed, a 39-year-old scholar who founded three guarantee them a place to return to. The country has
volunteer-run madrasahs, says he has received no out- largely been protected from accountability by China,
side help except for a lump sum for building materi- its neighbor to the north and its largest trading partner.
als when he arrived. “We’re at risk of shutting down Beijing has consistently blocked critical actions on
at any time,” he says. “It’s hard to say how long we can Myanmar by the U.N. Security Council, allowing only
keep doing this.” the passage of a nonbinding statement in 2017 urging
the military to end excessive force, which it didn’t.
Life in The Camps is perhaps most dismal for adoles- “We’re still waiting for bold action from the Secu-
cent girls, who by custom by and large are not allowed rity Council which will enable the return of this popu-
to be seen in public after they reach puberty. Inside a lation and show that we care about the principles and
small shelter on the edge of Camp 15, values at the core of this organization,”
a 16-year-old girl explains why, in mid- Adama Dieng, the U.N. Special Adviser
March, she tried to leave for Malaysia, on the Prevention of Genocide, tells
more than 2,000 miles away by sea. LEFT WITH 375 SQ. FT. TIME. “If this issue is not resolved
The girl, who did not want to be named, NOTHING U.N. MINIMUM today, we will be setting a very seri-
STANDARDS
came here with nothing but a sarong Highly dependent on ous precedent.”
and her immediate family. Poor and il- humanitarian aid, Few countries other than Bangla-
the Rohingya are
literate, she is unable even to get mar- desh are stepping forward to help out
among the most 123 SQ. FT.
ried because her single mother can’t vulnerable refugees IN DENSEST the Rohingya in the interim. Other
afford to pay an exorbitant dowry. in the world KUTUPALONG countries that have long been destina-
In a sweltering hut lined with plas- Camp area per person tions for Rohingya, such as India and
tic sheets, she plotted her departure Saudi Arabia, began deporting them
for weeks before setting out one after- late last year in separate crackdowns
noon with two dresses and the equiv- 910,619 on migration. And there’s evidence
alent of about $3. She knew that if Total refugee population of donor fatigue among the countries
she got across the Bay of Bengal, the that have promised to help the refugees
smuggler would ask for more money. 664,752 stuck in Cox’s Bazar. Only 18% has been
“I had hope that if I got to the other pledged toward a requested $920 mil-
side, someone would be kind to me,” are illiterate lion for a one-year U.N. response plan.
she says. If no one rescued her, “then The World Bank has mobilized almost
that is my fate.” 500,840 $500 million in grants for infrastruc-
She and the dozens of other pas- ture over the next three years, but criti-
sengers, mostly girls around her age, are children cal food and social programs are at the
were told that rich Rohingya men who whim of faraway politicians.
had built lives in Malaysia would be 32,983 What the Rohingya want, more
waiting on the shores to save them. than money or promises of aid, is citi-
More likely they would have been are single mothers zenship and the rights and responsibil-
trafficked or left to die at sea. So per- ities it guarantees. For the generations
haps she was lucky that after a fishing 18,030 turned away from every home they’ve
boat took her out to sea and circled for ever had, it’s getting harder to hold out
hours in the darkness, the “big boat” are acutely malnourished hope. As a child, Alom Shah dreamed
never came. She doesn’t see it that young children of becoming an engineer, and was dev-
way. “I returned with a heavy heart,” astated when his people were banned
SOURCES: UNHCR; UNOCHA
she says. “I’ll go again any chance I NOTE: ILLITERACY IS BASED ON LOWEST ESTIMATED RATE from studying at university in Rakhine
get. I can’t be here anymore.” state in 2012. “I felt like both my wings
There is nowhere else to go. Back were broken,” the 19-year-old said. He
in Rakhine state, conditions are as bad as or worse taught himself English and now volunteers in the ref-
than when the Rohingya left. The homes they fled have ugee camps as a translator for medics. “Once we got
been razed, and a new conflict between the Myanmar here, it was like, ‘What do we do now?’” he says tear-
army and Arakanese ethnic insurgents has intensified fully, looking up at us with watery eyes and then, em-
since January. The quasi-civilian government, led by barrassed, shifting his gaze to the floor. “It felt like we
disgraced Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, has little were holding our breath, and gradually losing our hope.”
control over the situation and is still in denial about He says he’s already asked all the foreigners he knows
the atrocities. One senior Western diplomat based in if they can help him get a scholarship or find some other
Yangon says the government “hasn’t shown its ability way out. They can’t. “In the daytime when I meet my
to impose its will in Rakhine state at all.” friends, I somehow pass the time,” Shah says. “But at
The international community, too, has failed to night when I’m alone, when I think about the future, all
compel Myanmar to restore rights to the Rohingya and I see is darkness. We’re not allowed to dream.” 

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