⏵ Fragmented Lives, Forced Displacement and Family Disintegration of Rohingyas Drawing from a series of interviews and narrative testimonies from displaced individuals now living in Malaysia, Thailand, and refugee camps in Bangladesh, this chapter explores the various consequences of violence, forced displacement, and exile. The testimonies collectively narrate that the AA’s increasing oppression of their community left them with no choice but to leave. They explicitly reveal that its youth were being forcibly abducted, conscripted into unpaid services, and at times even used as human shields in the ongoing conflict against the junta. Between March and June 2025, 200,000 Rohingya people were internally displaced following an arson attack and house burning by the Arakan Army. Satellite imagery and rights monitor groups described atrocities committed against the Rohingya community on several occasions. It would not be wrong to say that their fleeing of the place is not easy either, the Arakan Army in most of the cases only allows people if they are ready to pay huge amounts of money. While leaving their places, the community people also take up precarious routes that are usually unsafe. However, we must also recognise that this forced mass migration of the persecuted community is not a recent phenomenon; it has already been in practice. The Arakan Army forcibly displaced the Rohingya community from their home and villages in Buthidaung and forced them to live in the rice paddy fields and open areas . Forced displacement has occurred in 35 Rohingya villages in Buthidaung following the Arakan Army’s brutal attack, forcing more Rohingya people to flee to neighbouring countries like Bangladesh, Thailand, and Malaysia. Following the violent military actions of 2017, over 1 million Rohingya people were forcibly displaced, with over 750,000 initially seeking refuge in Bangladesh. As per the latest statement released by UNHCR in March 2025, the total number of refugees in Bangladesh, fleeing violence, has gone up to 1.5 million, adding to the hundreds of thousands already there. Due to the escalating violence in Myanmar since the 2021 military takeover displaced 2.6 million people internally. Renewed violence in Buthidaung has displaced 40,000-50,000 more Rohingya in March 2024, from 10 villages of Buthidaung’s Ka Kyet Bet, Ah Lel Chaung and Ba Gon Nar villages, and Maungdaw’s Paung Zar and Hla Baw Zar. Human rights organizations, including Fortify Rights and Amnesty 45