Rohingya Refugees Lost Between Languages In Bangladesh

WORLDCRUNCH 

NEWS DEEPLY
2019-04-05

A Rohingya refugee looking over Cox's Bazar refugee camp in Bangladesh - Zakir Hossain/Chowdhury/ZUMA      

Caught between a host country trying to hinder their integration and a home country holding back their return, Rohingya children find themselves in linguistic limbo.

COX'S BAZAR — When Mohammed Reyas works on his math classwork, his mind splits among multiple languages.

The 11-year-old, a Rohingya refugee from Myanmar, starts counting in Burmese: "Tit, hnit, thone." He then switches to Bangla: "Char, panch, chhoy." Then Rohingya: "Hant, anchtho, no." Finally, he finishes in English: "Ten, eleven, twelve."