A diplomatic breakthrough has allowed 62 refugees to start a new life in America. Yet a million still remain in fear and poverty in the Bangladeshi camps
After 23 hours on his first international flight, it was only after stepping off the plane in the United States that Nurul Haque finally felt the relief of escaping the refugee camps of Bangladesh, where he was born.
Haque was among the first Rohingya refugees allowed to leave Bangladesh in more than a decade. The 62 people who have flown to the US since late last year might be few, but resettlement has given them hope of opportunity and security that was denied them in Bangladesh.
“We have escaped the prison,” says Haque, 31, who moved to Portland, Oregon on the west coast with his wife and son. “For 31 years, I did not have even basic rights. All this time we lived with only primary services – school, food, health. Nothing more than that.”
Bangladesh hosts almost a million Rohingya refugees but limits their access to services and bans them from travelling beyond the fenced-in refugee camps, which have existed since the 90s. One of them, Kutupalong, is the largest refugee camp in the world.
"Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”-Emma Lazarus, The New Colossus
We didn’t understand it in time to save most of our own native peoples. Some still don’t understand it, though they could if they wanted to try. But for those who do, the freedom and equality it represents is worth fighting for. Fascists don’t really get that. I’d rather we didn’t have to prove it to them. Again.
edit for formatting
Don’t get too used to it. There is a political party in America that wants to bring back classism and slavery. You’ve just moved into a bigger cage.
As horrible as the politics of the Republican party are, it’s not comparable to living your entire life inside a refugee camp.
America rounded up every American of Asian heritage and threw them into internment camps during World War Two. Centuries of slavery is in American history, and there is a very LOUD minority screaming for “olde times” to return. Especially with the orange sandwich yelling about the American blood being poisoned. Democracy is on a knife’s edge right now. All it takes is the right fascist dictator, and depending on your dna, you might find yourself in a similar situation.
