News Desk, bdnews24.com
26 Apr 2020
File Photo: A boat carrying suspected ethnic Rohingya migrants is seen detained in Malaysian territorial waters, in Langkawi, Malaysia April 5, 2020. Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency/Handout via REUTERS
The stranded Rohingya need necessary food, water, and health care, the human right group said in a statement on Saturday, citing a UNHCR warning that the Rohingya may have been at sea for weeks without adequate food and water.
Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen recently said Bangladesh would refuse entry to more Rohingya as the country was already overburdened with more than 1 million refugees while migrant workers from other countries were returning home due to the coronavirus crisis, according to the statement.
“Bangladesh has shouldered a heavy burden as the result of the Myanmar military’s atrocity crimes, but this is no excuse to push boatloads of refugees out to sea to die,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at HRW.
Inhumane pushbacks of boats by countries in the region have placed refugees and asylum seekers’ lives at risk, HRW said. Malaysia recently pushed back to sea one and possibly more fishing trawlers with hundreds of Rohingya asylum seekers aboard, and Thailand has indicated that it will refuse entry to Rohingya boats.
On April 15, Bangladesh coast guard officials rescued one boat of Rohingya refugees which had reportedly been turned away by Malaysia nearly two months earlier. About 390 starving Rohingya, most under 20 years old, were brought ashore, with reports that as many as 100 may have died before the rescue.
Some of the stranded Rohingya may be among those who have left the refugee camps in Bangladesh over the last four months in an attempt to reach Malaysia, according to the HRW.
Bangladesh along with Malaysia and Thailand should continue to uphold their international obligations not to return refugees to places where they face persecution, and not to return anyone to where they would face a risk of torture or other ill-treatment, the organisation said.
“Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has called herself the ‘Mother of Humanity’ for offering protection to Rohingya fleeing Myanmar, but now her government is turning its back on these refugees,” Adams said.
“Concerned governments should call on Bangladesh to bring these two Rohingya boatloads ashore and provide generous financial support for these and other refugees living in overcrowded camps,” he added.
Link :https://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/2020/04/26/hrw-urges-bangladesh-to-allow-rohingya-stranded-on-boats-to-come-ashore
“Bangladesh has shouldered a heavy burden as the result of the Myanmar military’s atrocity crimes, but this is no excuse to push boatloads of refugees out to sea to die,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at HRW.
Inhumane pushbacks of boats by countries in the region have placed refugees and asylum seekers’ lives at risk, HRW said. Malaysia recently pushed back to sea one and possibly more fishing trawlers with hundreds of Rohingya asylum seekers aboard, and Thailand has indicated that it will refuse entry to Rohingya boats.
On April 15, Bangladesh coast guard officials rescued one boat of Rohingya refugees which had reportedly been turned away by Malaysia nearly two months earlier. About 390 starving Rohingya, most under 20 years old, were brought ashore, with reports that as many as 100 may have died before the rescue.
Some of the stranded Rohingya may be among those who have left the refugee camps in Bangladesh over the last four months in an attempt to reach Malaysia, according to the HRW.
Bangladesh along with Malaysia and Thailand should continue to uphold their international obligations not to return refugees to places where they face persecution, and not to return anyone to where they would face a risk of torture or other ill-treatment, the organisation said.
“Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has called herself the ‘Mother of Humanity’ for offering protection to Rohingya fleeing Myanmar, but now her government is turning its back on these refugees,” Adams said.
“Concerned governments should call on Bangladesh to bring these two Rohingya boatloads ashore and provide generous financial support for these and other refugees living in overcrowded camps,” he added.
Link :https://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/2020/04/26/hrw-urges-bangladesh-to-allow-rohingya-stranded-on-boats-to-come-ashore
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