In Southeast Asia, a Reuters investigation has found the Burmese government is taking steps to ensure that more than 900,000 Rohingya Muslim refugees who’ve fled to neighboring Bangladesh will never return home. Reuters cited satellite images that show hundreds of new houses are being built in villages where the Rohingya once resided, before Burma’s government backed a campaign in 2017 that the U.N. has described as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing.” This is Rohingya refugee Hussein Ahmed, speaking from a sprawling encampment in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.
Hussein Ahmed: “Our future is full of darkness. We are not sure whether we will be able to go back or not. If the government gives us back our rights, then we can go back. We have already left our country four times. If we go back and come back here again, it is not fair, as we want to get back our rights as Burmese citizens. We don’t want to stay in this country.”