They live in the world’s largest collection of refugee camps, which they are rarely allowed to leave. Their shops there have been bulldozed and their schools closed. In their homeland, warring factions seem to agree only on a shared contempt for the stateless exiles.

Eight years after hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims fled ethnic cleansing in their native Myanmar, they continue to languish in Bangladesh. On Tuesday, world leaders and activists will convene a high-profile gathering on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York to discuss a road map for repatriating them.

But no Rohingya from the camps will be present.

“They will be taking decisions about our lives,” said Showkutara, a Rohingya leader from the camps who goes by one name. “So why can’t we go?”

The Rohing

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