In Pics: 12-Year-Old Rohingya Refugee Works to Support His Family

A day in the life of a preteen Rohingya boy, forced to abandon childhood, in a refugee camp in southern Bangladesh.

12-year-old Nur offers to shade the visitors from the blazing sun, which can bring in a little extra cash for food and supplies.

(Photo: Reuters) 

The Rohingya crisis seems never-ending. Even though last week Myanmar and Bangladesh reached a deal for the repatriation of 620,000 Rohingyas, many continue to flee to neighbouring countries to escape oppression and bloody violence. This has resulted in thousands of refugee camps, especially in Bangladesh, where families are living together on the bare minimum, away from all they know and had. They get their life in exchange, a sacrifice these people are ready to make.

Nur (left) spends his days watching for Muslim clerics who distribute money collected at mosques for the refugees. 

Take twelve-year-old Nur Hafes, for instance. He lives in the Palong Khali refugee camp in southern Bangladesh and would rather be in school or playing football with friends at home in Myanmar. Instead, he has taken to finding a job to provide for his family of seven younger siblings and his mother.

“I saw many people with gunshot wounds and heard the crackle of houses burning,” says Nur’s mother Rabia Khatun (33). 

Nur and his family are among the more than 600,000 Rohingyas who have fled to Bangladesh since August to escape a counter-insurgency operation by the Myanmar military after attacks on security posts by Rohingya militants. United Nations officials have described the military’s actions in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state as “ethnic cleansing”, an accusation the Southeast Asian nation denies.

Nur Hafes waits by the road at his refugee camp, looking for visitors who might give him money for his family. 

A day in Nur’s life, documented by Reuters’ photographer Adnan Abibi, throws light on the ongoing international humanitarian crisis at risk of fading away from the world’s immediate condition.

Opening a brown umbrella, Nur offers to shade the visitors from the blazing sun, which can bring in a little extra cash for food and supplies.

“Sometimes I get 50 or 100 taka and some days I come back empty-handed,” Nur said, holding up a 50-taka ($0.60) note he received from a donor. 

The family left their home in Tharay Kone Yoe Dan village in Rakhine’s Maungdaw township when the violence started. “The Myanmar army burnt the houses with the people inside,” said Nur’s mother, Rabia Khatun, 33, seen here washing utensils outside their shelter.

Nur and his siblings play inside their makeshift home, entertaining themselves with a bottle. 

Rabia quickly gathered a few belongings – a blanket to protect her children from rain (seen here with her eight-month-old son Mohammed Zubair), identity papers and a couple of old photos – and the family fled to her parents’ village.

Rabia seen here with her eight-month-old son Mohammed Zubair), identity papers and a couple of old photos.

A family photograph of Nur Hafes’ family hangs in their shelter.

The next day, Nur’s mother Rabia Khatun says, the army showed up there, too. Her husband became upset and suddenly left. Rabia has not seen him since. Left with eight children, six of them younger than 10, she kept going. That evening, the family took a three-hour boat journey to Shah Porir Dwip, on the Bangladesh side of the Naf River.

Nur Hafes’ big family stands in front of their camp in southern Bangladesh.

Now the family relies on Nur for support. He was a huge help in Myanmar, reselling produce in their village market that his father had bought wholesale. Nur and his mother said they hope he can eventually do something similar in Bangladesh, although Nur also still talks about school and football.

Rabia Khatun combs hair of her eldest son Nur Hafes. 

Nur’s family of nine lives huddled inside a small tarpaulin tent.

Nur Hafes looks at a vendor as he buys fish.

Fish lies on a plate in Nur Hafes’ shelter.

Rabia Khatun (R), holds her malnourished eighteen-month-old daughter Fatima Razia at a medical centre.

Mohammed Zubair, eight months old, malnourished youngest sibling of Nur Hafes, lies in their shelter.

Nur Hafes stands amidst a crowd of refugees looking towards a local politician distributing humanitarian aid.

Abdul Hafes (L), 10, and his brother Mohammed Shohail, 4, siblings of Nur Hafes, look at their newly received Myanmar national identification card in their shelter.

Rabia Khatun, feeds her eighteen-month-old malnourished daughter Fatima Razia with food provided by a medical centre. 

Nur Hafes listens to his mother Rabia Khatun in their shelter.

Mohammed Shohail, 4, a brother of Nur Hafes, cries after his mother slapped him in their shelter.

Nur Hafes (L) eats lunch together with his siblings as their mother Rabia Khatun (R) looks on in their shelter.

Abdul Hafes, 10, brother of Nur Hafes, fills a container with drinking water from a hand pump near his shelter.

Nur Hafes digs soil to build a toilet as his grandfather stands nearby their shelter.

Rabia Khatun bathes her eighteen-month-old daughter Fatema Razia in their shelter.

With the whole family living in cramped quarters and his mother needing help to feed his siblings, the youngest two of whom suffer malnourishment, a normal child’s life is not in his immediate future. “I know he is young, but he understands his responsibilities. He doesn’t behave like a child any more,” Rabia said.

Rabia Khatun holds her eight-month-old son Mohammed Zubair as she cooks food in their shelter.

Also Read: Crowded, Hot & Sparse: A 360 View of Life in Rohingya Refugee Camp

(With Inputs from Reuters)