Rohingya in Bangladesh, food is not enough
When boats make it, there is a scramble to get people out. Babies are handed off to make sure they don’t get dropped in the water; the elderly are lifted and carried, and often people are so weak and exhausted and overwhelmed that they just collapse. What’s striking is that it’s so quiet. There may be someone sobbing or a baby crying, but usually the moment they arrive is almost silent.
I first arrived in Bangladesh in mid-September, a few weeks into the newest phase of the crisis named for the people on the boats: the Rohingya are fleeing their homes in neighboring Myanmar, seeking safety across the boundary river that widens into the Bay of Bengal. I had been moved by the images and stories from colleagues—an exodus of some 600,000 people with no rights, who spoke of being burned, raped and driven from their homes.