The strange life of Salim the refugee

JANUARY 1, 1984. This is Salim's date of birth. Well, it isn't his actual date of birth. The "new year's" date was given by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) because there's no real record of his birth. If you asked around, you'd find that a good number of Rohingya refugees were 'born' on 1st January. Salim tells me he was born in August. Maybe.

And it was 1988, not 1984, that he was born. He was registered to look older because "lebih tua (older)" could mean faster settlement in a host country - like his brother in Australia and his sister in Canada.