The Daily Star
Bulbul Siddiqi
Tue Mar 29, 2022
"I can see my homeland when I gaze upon the distant hills from the top of a hill where I live in the refugee camp. I want to return to my home. Home is where I can breathe, and I can feel the smell of my country. You cannot call this a life; it's just surviving."
This is what a middle-aged Rohingya man, living at a makeshift camp in Cox's Bazar, who crossed over to Bangladesh during the 2017 exodus of Rohingyas fleeing military persecution in Rakhine, Myanmar, said when I asked him how he was. It is easy enough to see the desperation of these displaced people to return to their homeland, as well as the frustration because they are not able to. Every time I visit the Rohingya refugee camp for my research, I come across people who have not yet given up hope of returning to their home in the Rakhine state. I even met a man who, having lived in a registered camp for 35 years, has not yet lost his hope to return to his homeland. He spent most of the golden time of his life struggling to survive in Bangladesh. He would be waiting till his death to return to Rakhine.
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