by Arafat Islam*
We are Rohingya refugees who have risked a lot of things to be where we are now. It’s all thanks to God that we have come this far and are in a safe place now.
In our country (Myanmar), there are a lot of things going on. We could barely be outside or even go anywhere without feeling scared and afraid. Most of our villages get burned down by the military when they see us; they do not recognize us as people. Instead, they probably think we are some kind of people that do not belong in this world, but we are all still human beings, just like everyone else. Many of our people get killed whenever they lay their eyes on us or spot us. We could barely be anywhere because they made us fear what they would do to us if they found us. We went through so much trouble to escape because if we got caught, it would be all over for us. So many days went by, and after so much traveling, we finally made it out safely to Malaysia. In around 2007, my dad went to Malaysia, and, well, it wasn’t easy for him because he went through so much stuff to get there, but thank God he made it out safely. He left while I was still a baby because he did not have any other choice. If he stays with us, then we have no chance of escaping our country. He didn’t take us with him because he wanted to make sure it was a good place for us first.
Years went by, and when it was around 2012, my mom and I made it safely out to Malaysia even though we went through so much trouble and struggle. It was not easy, but it was worth it because of all the nights when we could barely sleep due to the fact that we had to keep moving so we didn’t get caught. Some years passed, and in November 2016, we managed to make it to America. However, this time as the whole family, we couldn’t be happier. Once we made it out safe, about a year or half later, my dad’s condition wasn’t too great because he had a back problem. When he was a teen, he had to carry heavy stuff, which affected his back. Around 2019, my dad had surgery on his back, and we all thought that he was going to be fine again. However, the doctor put 2 screws in his back instead of all 4 of the screws that were required because he thought that my dad wouldn’t need them and that he would be okay. He was wrong. After he recovered a few months later, he was still feeling pain, he got a little better, but it did not really help. He could not offer to do another surgery because he didn’t know if he would survive the first one. Making it through the first one was a miracle, and he had little kids to take care of at home, so he refused to do it again and not put his life on the line once more. It was not easy for him to move like a normal person, but he kept trying his best to do everything, and I thank God that he is still here with us and has been able to see us grow. It is kind of crazy how much he can do and what he can still do in his position with all the pain and problems that are impacting him, but no matter what he is facing, he will never give up. He is the most hard-working person I know, and he is the reason we still have food on the table. It is all because of him.
However, even to this day, many things are still going on in my country, and sometimes our own people betray and kill us because of some misunderstanding. I lost one of my uncles to something like that; people scared him and told him they were going to kill him, so he got scared, and one day he had a heart attack and died in his sleep. He has about 3 kids who he will not be able to see again for a while and whom he will not see grow anymore, either. It is wrong what they are doing to us, and it is unfair that we are not even allowed to travel to see our relatives. I have a few cousins in Malaysia that are trying to come to America, but they cannot because they are not letting them come, and they have closed the line because they are not accepting any more people. It is so unfair that they treat us so wrongly and do not recognize us as people. We are also human beings, just like everyone else. What did we do wrong or where did we go wrong in this world? We were all chosen by God, and skin does not matter because we are all the same on the inside, nothing different. I pray one day to see some changes in this world and how they treat my people and others based on their color because this is not right at all.
*Arafat Islam is Knightdale, NC, based Rohingya highschool student