Rohingya refugees: Part II

A place where kids have aged before their time

At the Rohingya shelters in Cox's Bazar, more than 5,500 households are headed by children - because their parents are dead

An orphaned girl taking care of her sibling - a drawing by ST artist Pradip Kumar Sikdar, who accompanied associate editor Rahul Pathak and executive photojournalist Kua Chee Siong to cover the Rohingya crisis. ST ILLUSTRATION: PRADIP KUMAR SIKDAR
A rare sight of a boy engrossed in his "Everyday spoken English" textbook at the Kutupalong camp. There are no schools for Rohingya children. Some attend madrasahs. Others attend learning centres run by non-governmental bodies. But only 139,000 of th
A young girl looks after her sibling at the Kutupalong camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Childhood is a luxury that some children cannot afford. ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG
A rare sight of a boy engrossed in his "Everyday spoken English" textbook at the Kutupalong camp. There are no schools for Rohingya children. Some attend madrasahs. Others attend learning centres run by non-governmental bodies. But only 139,000 of th
Umar Hassan with his sister Supaira at Nayapara camp<NO1> on 20 July 2018<NO>. He saw his mother raped, then killed along with his father last year. Umar, then 12, and his sister<NO1> Supaira - whom he calls Putu (little girl) - and she remains his responsibility<NO>, then seven, fled their home. With help, they got to Bangladesh. ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG
A rare sight of a boy engrossed in his "Everyday spoken English" textbook at the Kutupalong camp. There are no schools for Rohingya children. Some attend madrasahs. Others attend learning centres run by non-governmental bodies. But only 139,000 of th
Rohingya children playing on the muddy ground at the Kutupalong camp. Of the 919,000 Rohingya who have made their way to the shelters in Cox’s Bazar, 54.6 per cent – or nearly half a million – are children below the age of 17, according to United Nations agencies. Some 500,000 children are packed into an area that is not even the size of Sengkang. ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG
A rare sight of a boy engrossed in his "Everyday spoken English" textbook at the Kutupalong camp. There are no schools for Rohingya children. Some attend madrasahs. Others attend learning centres run by non-governmental bodies. But only 139,000 of th
A rare sight of a boy engrossed in his “Everyday spoken English” textbook at the Kutupalong camp. There are no schools for Rohingya children. Some attend madrasahs. Others attend learning centres run by non-governmental bodies. But only 139,000 of the 368,000 children aged between four and 14 in these camps bother to show up for such informal schooling. ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG
Rohingya children playing on the muddy ground at the Kutupalong camp. Of the 919,000 Rohingya who have made their way to the shelters in Cox's Bazar, 54.6 per cent - or nearly half a million - are children below the age of 17, according to United Nat
A young boy with his baby sibling at a child-friendly space run by the non-governmental organisation BRAC at the Kutupalong camp. BRAC has set up 200 learning centres in the camps. If the government gives the go-ahead for a multi-year programme, it would mean accepting that the children will be in Bangladesh for years. ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG
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COX'S BAZAR • Childhood is a luxury that some children cannot afford. Not when they have a household to run.

Umar Hassan was 12 years old on Aug 25, 2017 - Myanmar's evening of murder and shame. He saw his mother raped, then killed along with his father. Umar and his sister Supaira, then seven years old, fled their home.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on August 13, 2018, with the headline A place where kids have aged before their time. Subscribe