Starving and exhausted, Burma’s Rohingya Muslims embark on treacherous journey in search of safety

Nearly 125,000 mostly Rohingya refugees have entered Bangladesh since a fresh upsurge of violence in Burma on Aug. 25, according to the UN refugee agency’s latest estimate. (K M ASAD / AFP/GETTY IMAGES)

By MUNEEZA NAQVIThe Associated Press
Tues., Sept. 5, 2017

TEKNAF, BANGLADESH—As far as the eye can see, they trudge through treacherously deep mud, across rice paddy fields and past rain-swollen creeks into Bangladesh.

Tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims, fleeing the latest round of violence to engulf their homes in Burma, have been walking for days or handing over their meagre savings to Burmese and Bangladeshi smugglers to escape what they describe as certain death.

Exhausted mothers clutched listless infants. Catatonically terrified children clung to bone-weary fathers. Young children with blank eyes carried even younger siblings.