For Rohingya Muslim child refugees, too many losses to count
BALUKHALI REFUGEE CAMP, Bangladesh — Abdul Hamid has the wide-open smile of a child and the eyes of an adult. By age 12, the Rohingya Muslim boy has seen more than anyone should have to see in a lifetime.
He saw his father shot by “Burma soldiers,” he volunteers in a calm yet deeply unsettling tone, lifting two fingers of his right hand to illustrate the act. When his father didn’t die right away, he saw the soldiers slash his throat.
His mother fled their home in Myanmar with Hamid and four younger siblings. They hid in forests for days and then walked for two days to reach the safety of Bangladesh.
Now he is the “elder” of his family, he says. So he tries to provide for them — as best he can in a place where hundreds of thousands of people share his family’s desperation. He stands on one edge of a vast, muddy field with a group of other boys, hoping that a passing aid truck will throw him some packets of food.