Rohingya girls fleeing refugee camps becoming trapped and abused child brides

Scores of underage Rohingya girls fleeing violence and starvation in Myanmar are being forced into arranged marriages with older Malaysian men who regularly abuse them.

Kept essentially as prisoners in their own homes, several of the child brides have spoken about the rape and other forms of abuse they endure at the hands of their husbands.

Many have been forced to have their own children, despite not being ready for motherhood.

'This was my only way out'

All the girls interviewed by the Associated Press said their controlling husbands rarely let them outside.

Several said they were beaten and raped during the journey to Malaysia, and five said they were abused by their husbands.

“This was my only way out,” says 16-year-old F, who in 2017 watched as Myanmar’s soldiers burned her house and killed her aunt. “I wasn’t ready to be married, but I didn’t have a choice.”

Now trapped with a husband more than ten years her senior, she yearns for a freedom she has never known.

“The Rohingya have no place to be happy,” she said.

The military forces that attacked the Rohingya people overthrew Myanmar's government in 2021, making the idea of returning home a life-threatening possibility.

And many of the refugees have been left with nowhere else to go.

Bangladesh has refused to grant citizenship or working rights to the million stateless Rohingya languishing in its camps, and no country is offering large-scale resettlement opportunities.

There has been a mounting apathy towards the suffering of the Rohingya as other crises have taken priority on the global stage.

Women and children increasingly impacted

During the Andaman Sea boat crisis in 2015, during which thousands of Rohingya refugees were stranded at sea, the vast majority of passengers were men.

But this year more than 60% of the Rohingya who have survived the Andaman crossing have been women and children, according to the United Nations’ refugee agency.

Meanwhile in Bangladesh, Save the Children says child marriage is one of the agency’s most reported worries among camp residents.

“We are seeing a rise in cases of child trafficking,” says Shaheen Chughtai, Save the Children’s Regional Advocacy and Campaigns Director for Asia.

“Girls are more vulnerable to this, and often this is linked to being married off in different territories.”

Who are the Rohingya Muslims?

The Rohingya are an ethnic group, the majority of whom are Muslim, who have lived in Myanmar for hundreds of years.

They are largely denied citizenship rights in Buddhist-majority Myanmar and face widespread social discrimination.

Rohingya are not considered one of the country’s 135 official ethnic groups and have been denied citizenship in Myanmar since 1982. This has effectively rendered them stateless.

In 2017, nearly 700,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar, where security forces and mobs conducted a brutal crackdown.

The UN, the UK and others described their treatment as ethnic cleansing.

Many of the country’s majority Burmans took to social media to support the military campaign and disparage those fleeing.

Most of the refugees leaving by sea attempt to reach Muslim-majority Malaysia in search of work.

Discrimination has in recent years extended to other Muslims throughout the country, sometimes flaring into communal violence.

Want a quick and expert briefing on the biggest news stories? Listen to our latest podcasts to find out What You Need To Know...