“Salaam Aleikum.” Peace be unto you. It’s the universal greeting of Islam, and is how Mohammad Rafeeq introduced himself, at the Balapur refugee camp where he and nearly 3,000 other Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar have settled on Hyderabad’s outskirts.
Mohammad lost everything in Myanmar – his home, his vehicle, and his family. His mother, father and sister were killed by the militia, who threw his three-year-old son into a fire. He works as a daily labourer to make a living, even as he struggles to perform Namaaz with a fractured leg. Despite all this, he begins his story by thanking the government of India for allowing him a place to stay. The government gives them nothing besides the land they stay on, but he is grateful nonetheless.
His only request? A sewing machine, so the women of the camp can work from their homes.
Mohammad, along with nearly one million Rohingya Muslims, fled his country’s military junta to become a stateless refugee. The Rakhine state where they once called home, is located on Myanmar’s Western coast, and is where the vast majority of the country’s minority Muslim population reside. The military and its supporters decry them as illegal Bangladeshi migrants, and since 2012, have been forcing them to flee.
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