Hear our Voices

Africa

Mary Venerato Laki, South Sudan returnee: "We want to go to our own homeland"
Years ago, Mary Venerato Laki fled conflict in South Sudan, moving north to Sudan, where she worked as a teacher for 42 years. But after a January 2011 referendum paved the way for South Sudan's independence, Mary, now a 60-year-old widow and sole guardian of four nieces, decided to move back home.
full testimony

Moussa Ibrahim, detained in Mali: “They accused me of supporting the Islamists”
Moussa Ibrahim is a 40-year-old ethnic Songhai restaurant owner in the Malian town of Timbuktu. He was arrested in February of this year on suspicion of supporting Islamist group Ansar Dine, which had taken over much of the region in 2012.
full testimony

Frederik Ngubane, stateless in South Africa: "It's like my future is on hold"
Frederik Ngubane, 22, returned to South Africa, the country of his birth, in 2009, after spending his entire childhood in Kenya and Uganda. An orphan, Ngubane had lost all contact with his South African relatives, and soon after arriving in the country he also lost his birth certificate, the only document proving his South African nationality. He has spent four years living as a stateless person, and is now losing hope that his situation will ever change.
full testimony

Asia

Pho Thein Aung, Rakhine IDP: “Our story isn’t being told”
Pho Thein Aung, 67, a father of three, recalls in vivid detail the day an angry mob of Rohingya Muslims gathered outside his home during last year’s sectarian violence in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State. Today he is one of more than 1,200 ethnic Rakhine internally displaced persons (IDPs) at the Set Yone Su camp outside Sittwe, the provincial capital.
full testimony

Ma Kyi, displaced by Myanmar violence: “Everything was on fire”
Ma Kyi, a 30-year old widow, wonders whether she will ever be able to return home. She is among 3,600 newly displaced people staying at Basic Education High School No. 1, in the central Myanmar town of Meiktila, following deadly sectarian violence between Buddhists and Muslims residents last week.
full testimony

Mohammad Shafique, “I am having trouble just supporting myself here”
More than two months after Rohingya refugee Mohammad Shafique fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar, the 32-year-old wonders whether he will be able to return.
full testimony

Middle East

Syria’s brain drain – another twist to the country’s crisis
The exodus of educated and skilled Syrians is increasingly depleting the country’s workforce and the quality of its health services, already strained by two years of conflict. IRIN spoke to professionals inside and outside Syria about the difficult choice they faced and the impacts of their decisions to stay or leave - both on themselves and their country.
full testimony

Mustafa, "The army came to my home to fire on the rebels from the veranda"
It was in the countryside that Syrian rebels first started making gains against government forces in 2011. But since then, Syria's civil war has become increasingly urban - with battles taking place on highways, neighbourhood corners, and even people's balconies. Mustafa and his family lived in a strategic location - on a hill overlooking a town where rebels had been increasing in force. Last fall, they found themselves on the frontline of the government's battle against rebels. This is his story.
full testimony

Jemmal Ahmed, “I survived a deadly trip to Yemen"
Jemmal Ahmed, 21, was recently deported back to Ethiopia after a nine-month stay in a prison in Yemen for illegally entering the country a few months earlier. His intention had been to cross over into Saudi Arabia to find work.
full testimony

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