Yahoo – AFP,
Nurdin Hasan, 18 June 2015
Rohingya
women are seen standing at a confinement area in Kuala Cangkoi,
Indonesia's
Aceh province (AFP Photo/Chaideer Mahyuddin)
|
Muhammad
Yunus came ashore in Indonesia by accident after a harrowing boat journey --
but he and hundreds of other Rohingya migrants are delighted to be spending
Islam's holiest month in the world's most populous Muslim-majority country.
The boat
people in Aceh province are among thousands of Rohingya and Bangladeshi
migrants who arrived in countries across Southeast Asia in May after a Thai
crackdown threw the people-smuggling trade into chaos and sparked a regional
crisis.
Yunus had
hoped to reach relatively affluent Malaysia, like many of the region's
migrants, but after a months-long voyage was dumped in shallow waters off Aceh.
A Rohingya
migrant is seen sweeping
the floor of a shelter in Kuala Cangkoi,
Indonesia's
Aceh province (AFP Photo/
Chaideer Mahyuddin)
|
"Praise
be to God, we were saved and brought to a Muslim country," said the
35-year-old religious education teacher, who was rescued off the coast of Aceh
on May 10 with around 580 other migrants.
"The
people here are very kind and have helped us, they see Rohingya refugees as
their brothers."
Others,
such as 16-year-old Muhammad Shorif, who fled a Rohingya refugee camp in
Bangladesh where he had lived with his family, echoed his sentiments.
"I
miss mother's cooking in the refugee camp," he said, but added he was
"very happy" to be in Aceh for Ramadan, when Muslims are required to
fast from sunrise to sunset.
Ramadan
will be a busy time for Yunus, who left Myanmar in 2012 when his Islamic school
was destroyed during fierce communal violence between local Buddhists and
Rohingya, as he acts as prayer leader for the Rohingya in the camps.
He said
that at the time he fled, it was impossible for Muslims to worship in peace,
with mosques being razed to the ground and security forces stopping them from
performing prayers.
Yunus spent
several years at a camp in Bangladesh but got on a boat earlier this year in an
attempt to escape the pitiful conditions there.
Rohingya
migrant is seen walking past
the UNHCR flag at a confinement area
in Kuala
Cangkoi, Indonesia's Aceh
province (AFP Photo/Chaideer
Mahyuddin)
|
A resident
of Sittwe, the capital of Myanmar's Rakhine state where persecuted Rohingya
have fled in droves, told AFP there were no restrictions imposed by local
authorities this year during Ramadan, and local Muslims could worship in
mosques.
Nevertheless,
the situation has long been tense, with many Muslims in the city living
segregated under armed guard.
It is a
starkly different picture in Aceh, where people have flocked to give donations
of food and money to the new arrivals and are planning to bring them delicacies
to break fast during Ramadan, which ends with the Muslim holiday of Eid.
Many in the
area sympathise with the Rohingya's plight because of their own painful recent
history -- Aceh was left in ruins by a decades-long separatist conflict, which
only ended when the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami hit the province, leaving more
than 170,000 dead in Indonesia alone.
"During
the conflict in the past, we endured suffering. But there are Rohingya who have
had worse experiences than people in Aceh," said Syamsuddin Muhammad, a
55-year-old fisherman who came to the migrant camp to donate money collected by
his village.
The
Acehnese are also trying to improve the migrants' living conditions.
At first
they were given shelter in a sports centre before being moved to shabby
buildings in the fishing town of Kuala Cangkoi, and this week they were taken
to a village inland, where they are being housed in better buildings.
A Rohingya
migrant plays with a child at a shelter in Kuala Cangkoi,
Indonesia's Aceh
province (AFP Photo/Chaideer Mahyuddin)
|
Since
coming ashore emaciated and filthy after months at sea, many of the migrants
appear to be recovering swiftly.
Images of
one desperate group in a green wooden boat off Thailand shocked the world --
but AFP tracked some of them down last month at a camp in another part of Aceh,
where they had eventually arrived, and found many relaxed, dressed in fresh
clothes and less gaunt and emaciated.
Despite the
migrants' immediate relief at having made it to a welcoming nation, they are
likely to be living in limbo for years as few countries are willing to resettle
migrants, including those who have genuine refugee status, and there are a huge
number waiting for resettlement.
Many end up
living a half-life in the shadows, eking out a living in the informal sector,
far from their loved ones.
Even Yunus,
who is happy to have ended up in Aceh, longs for his family back in Myanmar
during Islam's holiest month.
"I
miss my wife and children," he said, struggling to hold back tears.
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