Zakir Hossain, 19, tells his story at the Henry Student Center at Wilkes University on Monday night.
Kevin Carroll | Times Leader
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WILKES-BARRE — A refugee from Myanmar told his remarkable story as part of a seminar entitled “From Myanmar to Philadelphia: Where Will My Path Lead Next?” at the Henry Student Center on the campus of Wilkes University Monday night.
Zakir Hossain, a 19-year-old high school senior currently residing in Exton, participated in an interview-driven presentation detailing his journey from Myanmar to the suburbs of Philadelphia, describing his harrowing journey in great detail with the help of Roger May, who described himself as “virtual family” with Hossain.
“Zakir’s got an amazing backstory, and he’s an amazing kid,” May said. “This presentation shows the challenges that Zakir faced in leaving his own country.”
The challenges started for Hossain when he was just a young boy, as his father passed away very young, leaving Hossain with no choice but go to work to help support his family.
“When my father died, it was total devastation…it was like being on a plane, and suddenly the wings come off,” Hossain said.
From the age of 10, Hossain worked as a fisherman, farmer and day laborer to provide for his mother and his siblings. Hossain’s got eight brothers and sisters in total.
He worked for 13-14 hours every day for roughly three years, until tensions between Hossain’s Rohingya, a stateless ethnic group, and the Buddhists that made up the primary population of Myanmar.
“They were literally trying to eradicate the Rohingya,” Hossain said.
Faced with the option to either flee or face death, Hossain and one of his sisters left Myanmar when Hossain was 14, hopping on a boat sent from Thailand that promised to take them to safety.
This supposed rescue boat was actually a nightmare, according to Hossain: the purported rescuers were actually human traffickers, rounding up the Rohingya to be sold.
Hossain said that the boat stayed put for two months as more and more Rohingya were rounded up, to the point where, by Hossain’s estimation, there were about 900 people crammed on the boat.
After a 13-day journey, the traffickers abandoned the ship and, to make matters worse, the boat became punctured and slowly began to sink.
Hossain, along with several others, chose to jump into the sea and try to remain afloat.
“I was barely conscious, just trying to stay afloat, when I heard a voice and saw a flash of light,” Hossain said.
The light came from an Indonesian fishing boat, which rescued Hossain and many others. He was taken to Indonesia where, after four long months, he was reunited with his sister.
When it came time to move on, Hossain said he was presented with flags representing different countries.
“I chose the United States because the flag was so intricate, I really liked it,” Hossain said.
Hossain currently attends Henderson High School, and plans to attend college and major in computer science. He also says that he’s in the preliminary stages of writing a book, so that he could tell the world about his ordeal and how he survived.
“It’s not difficult to accomplish something…you just need that keenness,” Hossain said.