Uncertainty, despair grip Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh

 

Sitting in his tiny one-room home in the congested Shalbagan refugee camp in Teknaf of Cox’s Bazar on a hot and humid monsoon day, Abu Sufian laments the loss of a relatively happy life in Myanmar's Rakhine state seven years ago.

The 38-year-old Rohingya Muslim farmer grew enough crops on his land and caught fish to feed and support his family in Maungdaw, a Rohingya-majority township on the other side of the Naf River, which divides Myanmar and Bangladesh.

“Like other Rohingya, we had no citizenship and faced restrictions on movement and higher education among other things. But it was our home where we had dreams to become a citizen and live a dignified life with basic rights,” Sufian, a father of three, told UCA News.

His dreams, like those of tens of thousands of Rohingya, were shattered when the military launched a brutal crackdown on the minority group following attacks by Rohingya militants in August 2017.

The crackdown left thousands dead, injured or raped, while hundreds of Rohingya villages were erased. The United Nations called it “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing” and the US government termed it “a genocide.”

Sufian and his family joined the exodus of more than 750,000 Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh to avoid the genocidal crackdown.

About one million Rohingya now live in dozens of camps in Cox’s Bazar surviving on aid from charity groups.

With no visible efforts for repatriation, little scope for education of children, unemployment and criminal activities like militancy, trafficking of humans, drugs and arms, most refugees like Sufian are frustrated.    

“Now I live a life in a camp in a country that’s not mine. My children cannot have a proper education here because there is no such facility. It is not a dignified life,” Sufian said.

In 2019, the Gambia filed a genocide case against Myanmar at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which issued an order for provisional measures to stop all genocidal acts against the Rohingya.

The Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) is also mulling whether to prosecute Myanmar for crimes against humanity.

The United Nations has repeatedly called for voluntary and dignified repatriation of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar.  

Bangladesh attempted to start the repatriation process with China’s mediation but has failed twice since 2018 because Rohingya refugees refused to go back without a guarantee of basic rights including citizenship and justice for atrocities.

In addition, the Covid-19 pandemic halted bilateral talks over Rohingya repatriation. The military coup in February 2021 that topped the democratically elected government of the Aung San Suu Kyi-led National League of Democracy (NLD) and subsequent civil war has further complicated the situation.

Ethnic rebel groups and the newly emerged People’s Defense Force (PDF), the armed wing of the government-in-exile — the National Unity Government (NUG) — have fiercely fought against the military and now control about half of the country.

In Rakhine state, the Arakan Army (AA) rebel group has been engaged in bloody battles with the military for control of the region. Reports say the AA now controls much of the state.

In May, the rebels took control of Rohingya-majority Buthidaung town and are now on the verge of taking over Maungdaw, another Rohingya stronghold.

Fighting in Rakhine has intensified since last November, displacing tens of thousands of Rohingya still living in the state. Media reports said that the military conscripted some Rohingya to fight the rebels, further complicating the lives of the community.

Thousands of Rohingya have fled their homes and now shelter along the Naf River across from Bangladesh.

In August alone, an estimated 200 Rohingya civilians were killed in drone and artillery attacks amid fighting between the military and rebels in Rakhine, according to the Free Rohingya Coalition (FRC), a global Rohingya advocacy group.

“Reports suggest that it was the Arakan Army behind this massacre,” FRC coordinator Nay San Lwin told UCA News from Germany.

According to an official of Bangladesh’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, several hundred Rohingya crossed the border and took shelter in Cox’s Bazar camps during the political crisis in early August when some border forces were sent to Dhaka to quell unrest.

“Our policy is not to allow any more Rohingya in Bangladesh. It is because we are overburdened and troubled by the presence of more than a million Rohingya,” the official told UCA News on condition of anonymity.

Abu Sufian said he is upset with what is happening in Rakhine state and the fact that no Rohingya were allowed to enter Bangladesh.

“In 2017, we were at least allowed to take shelter in Bangladesh, but now after seven years, there is almost a similar situation in Rakhine. But our Rohingya brothers and sisters are not able to take safe shelter,” he said.

Sufian says life in congested camps is challenging and miserable. Most Rohingya are unemployed and only some young ones work as volunteers.

“We are almost hundred percent dependent on aid from the UN,” he added.  

“Then, there are various criminal groups within the Rohingya community. Often, there are murders and other crimes. How can we continue to live here? I don’t see any hope,” he said.

Khin Maung, a teacher and executive director of the Rohingya Youth Association in Kutupalong camp, told UCA News there are NGO-run schools, but no trained teachers to teach in the Burmese language.

“Most children are not interested in going to the schools because there are no good teachers,” he said.

Maung does not see any prospects of repatriation in the near future because the AA is likely to take full control of Rakhine state soon

“The Arakan Army is now killing the Rohingya,” he said, adding that the AA thinks that the Rohingya are fighting for the Myanmar military, which has conscripted many Rohingya youths both from Bangladesh and Rakhine. 

An investigation by rights group Fortify Rights has found that armed groups abducted Rohingya refugees from Bangladeshi camps, and then transported them to Myanmar and forced them to join the junta forces.

It said that more than 1,700 Rohingya from Bangladesh were recruited between March and May.

After its formation in 2021, the NUG announced that it would amend laws to grant citizenship to the Rohingya and list them as an ethnic group of Myanmar.

“That was more a political statement. The NUG did not even condole or condemn the killings of so many Rohingya and their displacement in Rakhine state,” said Nay San Lwin, a Rohingya political activist from Myanmar.

There are some 600,000 Rohingya in Rakhine state, and most of them are now displaced by the conflicts.

“The aid groups have no access to the displaced communities. They are starving and suffering from a shortage of medicines. This is a dire situation,” Lwin said.

He appealed to Bangladesh’s interim government, led by Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus, to provide shelter to the Rohingyas now living along the Naf River.

Professor Tawfique M Haque, director of the South Asian Institute of Policy and Governance at North South University in Dhaka, suggested that Bangladesh help establish a humanitarian corridor through Bangladesh to Rakhine.

The UN can play a leading role in the humanitarian corridor, he said adding that Yunus can use his international image to ensure the dignified repatriation of Rohingya.

“This leverage can be used to create pressure on the Arakan Army, hold them accountable and eventually ensure Rohingya repatriation,” he told UCA News.