Rohingyas number swells to 3,800 in Hyderabad

​Hyderabad: The number of Muslim Rohingyas, living in the slums of Balapur, Hafeezbabanagar, Pahadishareef, Mir MominPahadi and Kishanbagh, is growing with each passing day. Stateless and unable to eke out a living, the Rohingyas are waging a bitter battle to make ends meet.

One of the major challenges faced by them is getting an Aadhaar card and the refugee card issued by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). In a programme organised by Save the Children, an NGO,on the occasion of World Refugee Day on Tuesday, Prashanthi, Joint Collector Hyderabad saidthe government and NGOs should work closely. She expressed the need to provide Aadhaar cards and temporary housing for the community.

An Aadhaar and UNHCR card is a passport to education and also jobs. Abdul, a daily wage labourer said, “It is difficult to get good jobs as employers insist on identity proof and due to these unemployment problems our children cannot get into good schools.”

Last year a day school was opened in Hyderabad to cater 100 students in the old city but because the number of children is 1,700 providing education to all is hard. Living in sub-human conditions in plastic tents, 98 per cent of Rohingyas are illiterate and find it difficult to get jobs and as a result end up working on construction sites.

Most families are big in size with several kids. Most of them have to get a special permission to visit Yangon. As the Myanmar government is unwilling to accept them, they are living in penury in different parts of India.