“I want to continue my study here. But I don’t have an ID card, so I can’t enroll in any school here. I’m a refugee. My ID card was burnt during the riot in Myanmar”.
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| Illustration of Myanmar refugees |
Say Faiz (no real name), is a young Myanmar refugee who works in a food stall in a corner of Kuala Lumpur city. He told his heart to the editor of Melipirnews.com in early February 2023. To make a living, he worked very hard at the stall the whole day; from morning until late evening.
His Malaysian boss has trusted a lot of in him. He was placed on duty at the cashier's desk. As a cashier, his job is of course to receive payments from customers. This job is considered good for him, who is none other than a Rohingya immigrant. Other food stall workers there mostly work in the kitchen as well as as waiters. One of the advantages of this young man is that he is more fluent in English than other employees. Actually, most of the employees at the food stall come from Indonesia.
His parents and siblings live in Bangladesh. In Malaysia, he lives with fellow refugees employed by Malaysian businessmen. He had visited his mother in a refugee camp in Bangladesh. He also did not forget to save his income for his mother in Bangladesh while looking for opportunities to continue his education in Malaysia. In Myanmar, he had previously received his education up to the high school level before riots forced him to leave. Therefore, he could speak English quite well. In this stall, he serves tourists and students from outside Malaysia in English. He is also fluent in Malay.
Faiz may have fared slightly better than his fellow Rohingya Muslim refugees who now live in Aceh Province. “Boat people”, the term that first appeared in this group of refugees from Myanmar, are mostly stranded in Aceh seas. The Indonesian region is not really their goal. Not even Malaysia. However, in Malaysia, many of them can work like Faiz above.
According to the latest data, currently as many as 549 Rohingya ethnic refugees are in Aceh Province who are temporarily accommodated in Aceh Besar Regency, Pidie and Lhokseumawe City. Data recorded also shows that since 2011 there have been 2,446 refugees stranded in Aceh. So, that means a lot of reduction in the number of refugees over the last 12 years. According to reports, many of them fled refugee camps.
Living in a refugee camp in Aceh means they live a limited life. In the beginning, the refugee camp was in a residential village. It is also not uncommon for friction to occur between refugees and local residents. Locals did not accept refugees because they received living facilities, both provided by the Indonesian government, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). In contrary, local residents who also live on the threshold of the poverty line hope to also get help as just like Myanmar refugees.
Unfortunately, no facilities other than food and drink received by the refugees in the refugee camps are known. It is very likely that, like Faiz's story above, the education of refugee children and young people is hampered. Likewise with protection of their health. It is also worth worrying about what the future of the refugees will be like, especially among the young.
In addition, the Indonesian government has not ratified the Refugee Convention (1951) and its protocol (1967). This makes Indonesia not obliged to welcome the arrival of refugees and fulfill the refugees' rights to life. The Indonesian government's concern so far for meeting the needs of refugees is limited to reasons of respect for the value of human rights, as stated by the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Therefore, the future of Myanmar refugees in the Aceh region is actually quite risky, especially for their young generation.
MN