Somina has everything my Rohingya friends in Malaysia dream of – she has legal status to live in Europe. It is something that is desired by countless refugees, yet according to the UN fewer than 1% of refugees are resettled each year. Somina is supposedly living the dream, but her eyes tell a different story.
Somina is scared of what her future holds. After completing her education in Europe, Somina’s family arranged for her to marry a man living in Bangladesh. She went over to the camps to meet her husband and returned pregnant with their first child. Somina is expected to complete the long and costly process to get her husband a spousal visa so he can move to Europe. After the birth Somina visited Bangladesh to introduce her son to his father; she returned pregnant again.
Somina now has two beautiful children but worries when they will be able to see their father again. Covid restrictions and limited finances has meant she has not been to Bangladesh for several years. There are delays in processing resettlement visa applications with no confirmed date of when it will be granted.
There is another fear that lies deeper. Her older sister was in the same situation and was successful in getting a visa for her husband. He ran away within months of arriving leaving her sister with two children and a very low income. Somina now helps her sisters care for her two children, wondering if the same thing might happen to her.
Pray for Somina and other Rohingya women separated from their husbands:
-Speak 107:6 over them, ‘they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress.’
-Pray blessing over marriages and families
-Thank God that He is at work making Himself known to husbands and wives.