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| Many ethnic Rohingya who make the journey over to Malaysia are young men (Photo: Reuters) |
March 17, 2013
Al Jazeera
Maher Sattar
Young men who have found refuge in Malaysia after fleeing violence in Myanmar are covertly getting brides from home.
Cox's Bazaar, Bangladesh - Shamsul Alam, has dabbled as a
tailor's assistant and construction worker since fleeing to Malaysia
from his native Rakhine State in Myanmar.
He recalls bitterly his gruelling 12-14 hour work days on construction
sites before grabbing a quick meal and dashing off to the highlands in
the hopes of evading the authorities.
But when he speaks about his intentions to marry, the 30-some year old
Rohingya becomes much more poetic: "If a man wants to live, he must have
a woman…People need companions to live on this earth."
However, his dream to marry has been difficult. As young Rohingya men
like Alam have settled into life in Malaysia, to which a steady trickle
of Rohingya refugees has been fleeing, they've been presented with a
unique twist on a common dilemma: where to find a suitable bride.
Their perceived low social status has made it particularly difficult to secure brides.
"There's a big gap socially between a Rohingya man and a Malay woman,"
says Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project, an advocacy
organisation for the Rohingya community. "The father of a Malay woman
would not want to give his daughter to a stateless groom."
As a result, the demand for brides is creating a new phenomenon: the Rohingya version of the mail-order bride.
Sending back for a bride
The stateless Rohingya, described by the UN Refugee Agency as the most
persecuted minority in the world, face restrictions in their native
Myanmar on where they can travel, who they can marry, and how many
children they can have.
Of the 30,000 refugees who have fled ethnic
violence in their home state for Malaysia, the majority of those
braving the treacherous boat journey have been young, single men.
"In the past many Rohingya men in Malaysia married undocumented
Indonesian or Burmese Muslim women," Lewa says. "But from 2009 it became
more common to send a Rohingya bride from their village by air."
Activists and refuges estimate that hundreds of Rohingya brides have
been sent over since 2009, with 67 making the trip last year.
"In our camp there has been many men who went over [to Malaysia] who
have since been in touch to say ‘hey, send me a woman to marry'," says
Deen Mohammed, a refugee living in Leda camp in Cox's Bazaar in
southeast Bangladesh.
So-called brokers and family members back in Myanmar and the refugee
camps in Bangladesh look out for potential female mates. Once the right
woman is found, several deals are struck.
The suitor - or often his parents - then come to an agreement with the
bride-to-be's parents, which can involve monthly payments or a lump-sum
figure. The girl herself is rarely consulted.
Arrangements must then be made with the brokers - who then arrange the
fake passports, tickets, and other documentation for the girl and her
companion who often pose as her husband to get her through the scrutiny
of immigration officials.
From sea to the sky
One factor spurring the growth of the number of brides being flown over
is the change in Thailand's attitude towards refugee boats.
Having previously turned a blind eye, In 2009, Thailand - a key passage for onward travel to Malaysia - began to push refugee boats back to sea,
leaving their passengers vulnerable to risks of dehydration and death.
This shift coincided with a boom in low-cost air travel in Asia, with
airlines like AirAsia adding hundreds of routes in 2008.
Parents unwilling to risk their daughter's lives by sending them on a
small boat seem to be more receptive to the notion of dispatching them
by air, opening the door for lonely men like Alam to spend his savings
on a bride, a broker, and their plane tickets.
Somewhat ironically, the cost of bringing a bride to Malaysia by boat is
now more expensive than by air, according to Deen Mohammed.
"For the boat, the brokers charge more for the women than they do for
the men, about $2,280", he says. "The plane ticket costs about $1,500,
getting a fake passport and other documents costs about $250."
He explained, however, that many refugees don't have the luxury of choice.
"Many of the refugees aren't able to make the arrangements to go by
plane…Not everyone is able to get a passport and other documents."
Uncertain future
Syed Karim, a refugee in Bangladesh who is preparing to send his
daughter by boat to get married in Malaysia, is realistic about the
situation.
"I just know that I'm supposed send the money I get [from the groom] to a
specific place, and then someone will come take her. I don't know who
he is, but I know his name," Karim says.
"Of course I'm scared about what might happen to her. She's a single
girl by herself, she's 21 years old. She's worried about how she is
going to reach her fiancé."
Such trips can end in tragedy. Just a few days earlier, two Rohingya
brides en route to Malaysia by boat from Cox's Bazaar drowned in choppy
waters, Mohammed says.
But uncertainty is a hallmark not just of the travel, but also of the life after it.
Mohammed recounted the story of a girl who went to marry a man in
Malaysia who it turned out already had a wife and two children. The
marriage was called off and the girl was stranded.
"For a month her parents heard nothing from her at all, had no idea how
she was surviving, until finally she was able to call them to let them
know that she had managed to find another husband."
Lewa also voices fears about the future of the girls, many of whom she says are underage.
"The women are there at the mercy of their husband. It's hard to talk to
them - the husband is afraid to allow her out because he is afraid she
could be arrested.
"NGOs have raised concerns about high levels of domestic violence in the
Rohingya community. At least in a village in Burma you have relatives
or village elders to turn to," Lewa says. "Stateless young brides in an
alien country are particularly vulnerable to abuses by state authorities
and locals, but also by their own refugee community.
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