Rohingya refugee recounts perilous boat voyage from Bangladesh to Indonesia

Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are increasingly embarking upon hazardous boat journeys to Southeast Asia with the hope of a better and more secure future.

Many have perished during the voyage, but many have also survived. Among the survivors is Muhammed Faisal, who reached Indonesia after a nerve-wracking nine-day journey.

Muhammed Faisal aka Pacifist Soe Myint was 14 years old when he and his family decided to flee from their village of Inn Din in Myanmar’s Rakhine State to the coastal city of Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh.

The arduous trek began on August 25, 2017 as the Myanmar military launched a series of “clearance operations” against the Rohingya people, following attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) on police stations and military outposts in the region.

In Bangladesh, Faisal and his family, which comprised 10 members including his siblings and parents, were lodged at Camp – 14 Hakim Para in Cox’s Bazar. The area is home to around 1.2 million Rohingya refugees evicted from Myanmar, who first began arriving in the early 1990s.

Speaking to TRT World, Faisal narrated his escape from the refugee camp, the boat journey to Indonesia and subsequently to Malaysia.

Why embark on this journey?

The conditions at the refugee camps in Bangladesh were deplorable beyond imagination. There was no scope to continue with my education. And not only that, all refugees are kept herded like animals. Many from the camps have been prosecuted for venturing out and some have been killed as well. There was a possibility that I might have been killed as well by the criminal gangs active in the camps.

So the ambience at the camps compelled me to take the plunge into the boat journey. We have heard harrowing tales about the voyage, about how people were stranded for days on the sea and how many people have died before reaching the destination. Still, I thought, it was a risk worth taking. If I am successful, then it would mean a life much better than languishing in the refugee camps.

After a series of discussions with my parents, we arrived at the decision that my younger sister would also accompany me on the voyage. The reason was simple – there was a huge danger of her being raped and exploited in the camps either by the criminal gangs or even by security personnel.

The next step was arranging the money for the journey. The agents who fix such trips would not settle for anything less than 100,000 Taka (US$910). So my mother sold off her necklace and clothes and my father borrowed some money from a friend. We set sail for Indonesia from Cox’s Bazar on January 1, 2023.

What was it like on the boat?

My sister and I were in a group of 184 people, including 64 women and 36 children. There was no definite duration of the journey. Still, we hoped to reach Indonesia within a month.

Unfortunately, we exhausted our stock of food and water within four days when we were on the Andaman Sea. The agents never briefed us properly about the journey and about the quantity of food and medicines that would have to be carried. Then, on the same day we ran out of food, the boat engine was damaged, bringing the journey to a grinding halt. We started losing hope and were almost certain that the entire group would perish on the boat.

Within a couple of hours of these mishaps came a heavy downpour. Whatever medicines were carried were drenched and had to be thrown into the water. There was no shed for cover on the boat. This was followed by a thunderstorm and fierce winds that made the boat tilt perilously, giving the impression that it would sink. As if all this was not enough, a middle-aged person in the group suddenly collapsed and breathed his last.

It was in this distressing situation that a plane began to hover above us making us even more confused and disturbed. The plane vanished after a few minutes and we spotted an Indian Coast Guard ship approaching us after three hours.

After quizzing some of the voyagers, the Indian Coast Guard equipped us with sufficient food, fuel and helped repair the engine. They also offered us guidance on the route to be charted for reaching Indonesia.

How did you get from Indonesia to Malaysia?

We reached Indonesia on January 9, 2023. We were greeted by a group of fishermen who also informed the police. The police transported us to a refugee camp where we were offered food and made to undergo the COVID-19 test.

On the next day, officials of the UNHCR visited and gathered all data from us through intensive sessions of discussions. But we were not allowed to use the phone to speak to our parents in Cox’s Bazar. And as we could gauge, there was no scope of any legal employment in the country.

We stayed at the camp in Indonesia for four months until some of us decided to make the next move, to relocate to Malaysia. This journey was also by boat, but it was brief and safe. We landed in Malaysia within five days.

How is Malaysia?

In Malaysia, I was fortunate to have landed a job as a photographer at KEDB (Waste Management) Office. Most members of our community are engaged in menial jobs such as daily wagers, cleaners and construction workers. There are an estimated 108,000 Rohingya refugees registered in Malaysia.

Malaysian law does not permit Rohingya refugees to get engaged in formal employment. So the only option is to seek employment in the informal sector. The money that we earn is insufficient to sustain ourselves and inadequate for the expenses in food, education and healthcare.

But hardships notwithstanding, I have firmed up a plan to survive with dignity and be a professional photographer with the goal to document the difficulties and dangers faced by my community and other groups whose fate has been similar to ours.

Despite the hardships, life in Malaysia has been safer and more secure than living in the refugee camps of Bangladesh.

Looking back on the journey, I feel it was worth taking the risk. All’s well that ends well. So far, around 4,560 Rohingya refugees who have dared to undertake boat journeys to Southeast Asia have died during the voyages. The entire group that travelled with me had been extremely lucky barring the person who died.