The journey of a young Rohingya man from genocide to survival and hope

This essay was written by Mohammed Asem, courtesy of The Global Movement Against Statelessness (GMAS), a content partner of Global Voices. This post is part of Global Voices’ July 2026 Spotlight series, “Statelessness.” This series offers insight into the issue of statelessness and how it hinders people’s freedom of movement, educational opportunities, political access, and more. You can support this coverage by donating here.
Before fleeing my homeland, I had a place to call home and dreams to build a future in Arakan, Myanmar, but we frequently encountered discrimination: We could not move freely, access public education, attend university, or participate in elections.
Before the 1982 nationality law, the Rohingya in Myanmar held citizenship rights, including recognition as Myanmar nationals. After the 1982 Law, the Rohingya lost their citizenship entirely, which affected their ability to live with dignity and safety. As a result, a large number of Rohingya — approximately 1.2 million people according to UNHCR estimates — were forced to become refugees in their neighboring country, Bangladesh. I was one of them.
As I fled with my family in 2017, at the age of 10, we witnessed people being shot as they were trying to cross the Naf River, the river marking the border between southeastern Bangladesh and northwestern Myanmar. I saw many Rohingya children floating on the river after losing their lives to the Myanmar junta’s gunfire. We were also fired upon as we were trying to reach the Bay of Bengal by crossing the river near our village in Myanmar, but fortunately for us, we made it across.
The Rohingya have been persecuted in Myanmar since at least the 1970s, with events coming to a head from August 2016 to January 2017, when the military began a violent crackdown that led to large-scale massacres and crimes against humanity. The military was accused of ethnic cleansing, war crimes, and committing genocide by different United Nations agencies, officials of the International Criminal Court, various governments, and several human rights groups.
Beyond the extrajudicial killings, gang rapes, executions, arson, infanticides, relentless persecution, and denial of rights, the military’s actions displaced vast numbers of people, most of whom fled across the border to Bangladesh.
After facing all the hardships of the crossing, we reached the border — Bangladesh’s Shah Porir Dwip island — but the Border Guard of Bangladesh would not allow us to enter the country, and we spent a night on the island, struggling to live without any necessities. After spending that one night there, my family and I were allowed to enter Bangladesh.
But the story does not end there. After the struggle to escape to safety came the struggle of being stateless once we reached the world’s largest settlement and camp in Kutupalong, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.
When we arrived in Kutupalong, the Rohingya Camp, we had access to very few supplies — clothes, food, medicine, and sanitary supplies were limited — and we lived in temporary shelters, which were very rough. As we fled Myanmar, we were exposed to different diseases and injuries, and we received no proper treatment. One of my brothers almost died from the lack of proper treatment. After a few days of seeking help, I was able to find basic treatment for my brother, and he gradually got better.
Living in a refugee camp is safer than what we fled from, but it is not a normal life. In a normal life, I would be thinking about what to study, how to build my career, and succeed. But in the camp, I had no opportunities to study, and at 11 years old, I was nearly hopeless about continuing my academic journey. In 2019, I was admitted to an NGO-based learning center for informal education, but it did not match the regular school curriculum and did not prepare me to try for higher education.
After six months at the camp, I joined a Rohingya community school taught by teachers in the camp, where I studied the Myanmar curriculum just as I would have at schools in Myanmar. I hoped to integrate into mainstream schooling once I left the camp.
In 2023, I got an opportunity to study in Turkey, but I needed a passport, which I didn’t have access to, since Rohingya people don’t qualify for citizenship in either Myanmar or Bangladesh. I had gotten a certificate issued by the Myanmar Ministry of Education (MMOE) for graduating from high school; however, the scholarship evaluation committee did not recognize it because of my stateless status. I worked so hard for that opportunity, but I could not take it.
My recognition as a stateless and forcibly displaced person has become a long-term barrier to obtaining any formal opportunities for education or work. Over time, this made me an active advocate, youth activist, and human rights defender.
In July 2025, I founded an organization, “Arakani Youth Innovation,” to empower Rohingya young people, preserve our culture, and inspire innovation. We bring young women and men into peaceful dialogue where we can address the challenges the Rohingya are facing in the camps and find solutions through collective and cooperative decisions.
Many young Rohingya like myself dream of becoming future leaders, driving forces in their communities, but we always run up against the barrier of being designated “stateless.”
The situation in Myanmar remains uncertain even after the genocide of the Rohingya.
With the 2021 military coup, the junta took control of Myanmar just a few hours after parliament and detained the civilian leaders Aung San Suu Kyi and Win Myint. And since the military shifted power to junta coup leader Ming Aung Hlaing in 2021, the situation in Myanmar has worsened, and civil conflict has increased; the people of Myanmar have started fighting against the military.
In 2024, the armed Buddhist rebel group the Arakan Army took control of most of Rakhine State (Arakan). This group has also carried out large-scale brutalities and oppression against the Rohingya.
The hope for the Rohingya to return to their homeland with their rights has become even fainter.