From Survival to Advocacy: Why the United States Must Continue to Protect Rohingya Refugees

I am a Rohingya survivor of genocide.

I was born into a community that the Myanmar military tried to erase through mass killings, sexual violence, village burnings and forced displacement. For decades, Rohingya people have been stripped of citizenship, denied basic rights and targeted simply for who we are. In 2017, that persecution escalated into what the United Nations and human rights experts have rightly called genocide.

Like so many Rohingya, I did not leave my home because I wanted to. I left because survival demanded it.