Rohingya - A mother fighting for a trafficked son

In a camp for displaced Rohingya Muslims residents frequent bamboo “internet huts” where they can communicate with relatives who left the country, escaping the violence that led to 200 deaths and left over 140,000 homeless in 2012. Some arrive safely, while others are held hostage for ransom by human traffickers at jungle camps in Thailand or Malaysia. Each relative tells their own story of a family member they are still trying to keep in touch with and how they came to be separated.



Rahana cries as she talks with traffickers from an internet hut in Thae Chaung village, home to thousands of displaced Rohingya Muslims near Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State in western Myanmar January 29, 2015. Rahana, a 32-year-old Rohingya, has already sent $1,100 to the trafficker who is holding her 12-year-old son ransom at a camp along the Thailand-Malaysia border. The trafficker wants another $300 before he will release the boy. "Let me speak to my son", Rahana tells the trafficker. A few seconds pass, then a small voice says, "Mum"? Rahana's eyes fill with tears. "I will send the money", she assures her son. "Then they will let you go".

http://www.trust.org/slideshow/?id=356b4ab3-7e12-440f-9781-b40d97df7b89


The fact that she has managed to raise that amount of money fighting to free her son, in her circumstances, shows remarkable strength. I hope those that kidnapped and trafficked him and put them both through this, spend the rest of their lives in agony. Because it could never come close to the agony she must be going through.

Is there any way to help her? Who is policing this sort of thing?

I wish there was Quill.

An article about their living conditions:

MYANMAR: Displaced Rohingya living “worse than animals”

http://www.irinnews.org/report/96449/myanmar-displaced-rohingya-living-worse-than-animals

Although the article is from 2012, the conditions haven't changed very much.