These Are The Horrors That The Rohingya Refugees Face Everyday
"I told them I was poor and had nothing. One of them started beating me, saying, 'If you have no money, then we will kill you.'"
In August 2017, an outbreak of violence in Myanmar's Rakhine State forced a mass exodus of over 700,000 people to Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, where Rohingya refugees had begun to amass in previous years. According to the United Nations, there are approximately 900,000 Rohingya refugees today, as well as some 330,000 Bangladeshis who are hosting these refugees and in need of assistance. Earlier this summer, an independent United Nations investigation declared that Myanmar's military leaders should be investigated and charged with genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
These pictures capture the hardships and living conditions of the Rohingya people over the past year.
An exhausted Rohingya woman cries for help to others as they continue on their way after crossing from Myanmar into Palang Khali, near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, on Nov. 2, 2017.
Rohingya refugees cross the Naf River with an improvised raft to reach Bangladesh on Nov. 10, 2017.
A Rohingya woman, who crossed over from Myanmar into Bangladesh, lies unconscious on the shore after the boat she was traveling in capsized on Sept. 14, 2017.
Bangladeshi border guards attempt to clear Rohingya refugees off a road near the Balukhali refugee camp on Sept. 19, 2017.
A Rohingya woman mourns as she holds her 40-day-old son, who died after their boat capsized in Teknaf, Bangladesh, on Sept. 14, 2017.
Sona Banu gets carried by Nobi Hossain to the shore of the Naf River as hundreds of Rohingya people arrive by boats in the safety of darkness on Sept. 27, 2017.
An aerial view shows burned-down villages that were once inhabited by the Rohingya people, seen from a Myanmar military helicopter carrying the United Nations envoys to northern Rakhine State, Myanmar, on May 1.
In this photograph taken on Sept. 7, 2017, a house is engulfed by fire in Gawdu Tharya village, in Rakhine State in northern Myanmar.
Shaheda, 40, a Rohingya woman who said her body was burned when the Myanmar army set fire to her house, receives treatment in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, on Sept. 19, 2017.
In this photo from Sept. 18, 2017, Rohingya people, who crossed over from Myanmar into Bangladesh, reach out for food distributed by aid agencies in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh.
Recently arrived Rohingya refugees wait to receive aid donations on Sept. 13, 2017, in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh.
A group of Rohingya children eat food after crossing the Bangladesh–Myanmar border on Sept. 3, 2017.
Sameera, 20, looks out from her home in a cement cylinder while holding her 7-month-old baby on Sept. 17, 2017, in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh.
Mohammed Shoaib, 7, who was shot in his chest before crossing the border from Myanmar, shows his scars at the Kutupalong refugee camp on Nov. 5, 2017.
Momtaz Begum, 30, poses for a photograph at the Balukhali refugee camp in Bangladesh on Oct. 19, 2017. Begum told how soldiers came to her village demanding valuables. "I told them I was poor and had nothing. One of them started beating me, saying, 'If you have no money, then we will kill you.'" After beating her, they locked her inside her house and set the roof on fire. She escaped to find her three sons dead and her daughter beaten and bleeding.
Hasina watches over her son, Mohammad Anas, 11 months, who is suffering from acute pneumonia, on Oct. 4, 2017, in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh.
Flip-flops belonging to Rohingya people are pictured outside a mosque as they attend Friday prayers at the Balukhali refugee camp on Nov. 10, 2017.
In this photo taken on June 26, "M" shows teeth marks on her right breast from being bitten by soldiers while being raped, as she sits in her shelter in the Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh. "M" was raped by six soldiers from Myanmar's security forces after they strangled her 2-year-old son to death. She later found out she was pregnant and eventually gave birth to a baby boy. When she told her husband what had happened, he blamed her for the rape, and he wants nothing to do with her or the baby.
A mother carries her child to collect food supplies at a distribution point on Oct. 2, 2017, in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh.
Leaves cover the face of 11-month-old Abdul Aziz, after his body was brought back to the family shelter at the Balukhali refugee camp near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, a few hours after he died on Dec. 4, 2017. Aziz, whose family fled Myanmar some two months ago, died at a local clinic after suffering from high fever and severe cough for 10 days, his mother said.
A Rohingya girl named Amina poses for a photograph as she wears thanaka paste for makeup at the Kutupalong camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, on March 30, 2018.
Discarded items of clothing in a Rohingya refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, on Sept. 20, 2017.
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Gabriel H. Sanchez is the photo essay editor for BuzzFeed News and is based in New York City.
Contact Gabriel H. Sanchez at gabriel.sanchez@buzzfeed.com.
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