I took a walk around Selayang Wet Market and met a few Rohingya refugees who have been living here for a few years. I was curious to know how has life been for them, since being forced out of their home lands in Myanmar.
“I’ve been living in Malaysia for many years now, with my wife and children.”
“Are you happy living here?”
“I can’t say it’s been the best times, I had to come here illegally at first, travelled for many weeks on foot, then suffer to find a safe place to live. I had to find many different odd jobs, I worked as a contractor, then in cheap hotels and now I’m working in this market. Look at my conditions here, do you think its good?”
“Seem like you have a good life here now.”
“What is a good life sir? I had a good life back home, I had my own house and some land, now I work in this wet and dirty places, look at this black dirty water here, its all waste and dirt from cleaning fish. I have a family to worry about and care too.”
“Then would you prefer to be back home?”
“Of course we would, home is where we want to be, but we don’t have a home today. We had to ran away. It all got burn down. We had to leave as the government and military chased us away, they we torturing us. They injured so many of my friends and children. I saw terrible things. One time I saw the military torture and burn so many children alive in a school. They were just children.”
“I always miss my home so much, here life is hard for me and my family. We get discriminated by locals, people look down on us and we have to work like slaves, we get paid very little. I’m feeling lost here, I am getting old, I always don’t feel welcomed. We don’t have a home anywhere today. We wish to go back someday, but the government is not doing anything, it’s the military that’s doing everything there. It’s the military that controls.”
“I’m sorry, I hope someday you find your place of peace.”
– A Rohingya Migrant Worker.
(Wet Market Selayang – Malaysia)
