More than a year in Thailand, nearly nine in Malaysia, and the last two and a half years in New Zealand. That is Hafsar Tameesuddin’s journey, not just across the seas from her home in Rakhine State in Myanmar, but across lives — as a Rohingya with no future at home, as an asylum seeker who was safe but was not allowed to work and now, a rights campaigner studying for a degree in social work in New Zealand.
A longer-term solution is farther from sight after the February coup in Myanmar, the COVID-19 pandemic and a long, repeated history of what Hafsar calls being “failed” by Myanmar, Southeast Asia and the world. Speaking frankly, at times in bursts of speech, Hafsar is clear about who she is: “If I'm speaking anywhere, I always say I'm a Rohingya from Myanmar. I belong to both. That is my country; Rohingya is my identity.”
And it's not only from the government, even from the public perspective there were rumours and comments on Facebook and YouTube pages, let's say, [saying that] Rohingyas burn their own houses, and they pretend as if the government burn their houses so that they can get international sympathy -- which is very crazy and weird.
I've heard Rohingya campaigners say that the community feels betrayed by just about everybody. Would you agree with that? And then we have different type of ID cards. My great grandparents had green colour, pink colour, which is different than other ethnic groups, which deprive you [of] having equal rights. And then in 1982, they amended citizenship law that excluded Rohingya [from the list of ‘national races’]. Yes.
Philippines Latest News, Philippines Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.