People From Nowhere

Displaced by war, three Rohingya women living in camps and detention centres in the country share their resettlement dreams

-  Priyali Sur

SOMETIME around mid-December 2024, on a routine day at our women's centre for migrant and refugee women in New Delhi, Yasmin Begum walked in sounding ecstatic. “The IOM (International Organization for Migration) called me today. We are leaving for the US next month,” she said, beaming with excitement. For 12 years, Yasmin waited patiently for this day while living in India, where she is discriminated against and mistreated for being a Rohingya refugee woman.

The Rohingya of Myanmar are one of the world's most persecuted populations and the largest stateless population, estimated at approximately 2.8 million. The Myanmar Junta has attempted to systematically and systemically wipe them out. The Rohingya have been discriminated against since the 1970s. They were stripped of their citizenship in 1982. The violence and genocidal attacks that began in 1991, still continue.

Yasmin fled in 2012 from Buthidaung district in Rakhine state—the epicentre of violence—with her three-month-old infant. She carried her across borders and entered India, hoping for some relief. She thought she wouldn't have to fear being killed or getting raped here because of her ethnic identity. However, she could never imagine that even everyday survival would be so challenging.

Upon arriving in India, she expected to find UNHCR camps. She thought that with their help, she would be able to take care of herself and her infant. But India is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention or its 1967 protocol. The UN refugee agency, at best, can offer a UNHCR card, but shelter, food and everyday survival is up to the refugees themselves. So, instead of a secure camp, Yasmin found herself in a cold, damp and dark refugee settlement in Delhi where houses were made of plastic sheets, cardboard and mud. This is where the other Rohingya families lived. She paid for the small space in that refugee