Because of the difficult living conditions many inhabitants of the islands have left their homes in the last few decades and sought to make a new life elsewhere. The limited medical and education facilities also induced many to leave. Large numbers of people from Maluku Tenggara now live in South Seram, where they work in the timber and clove industries, and in Ambon, which also offers opportunities of employment. During recent years, however, many Christian Southeast Moluccans have returned to the islands of their birth to escape the violence resulting from religious differences with the Muslim community and follow events, temporarily they hope, from a safe distance.