"Water, water, everywhere, not a drop to drink" said Samuel Taylor
Coleridge in his famous poem 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'.
Captain A F M Ahsan Uddin
As a sailor, we always feel this and thus our relation with the sea
becomes inseparable in our life. Sometimes we forget the presence of air
around us, though we inhale it every second, likewise, at times we tend
to realise our engrossed relation with the sea. However, the same
feeling suddenly popped up when we saw a forlorn mechanised boat -- at
deep sea for months -- carrying a huge number of people including women
and children. They even didn't have water to drink, even though they
were surrounded by the sea.
There was news regarding a few hundred of Rohingya at deep sea in
mechanised boats seeking refuge to Malaysia, Indonesia or Thailand since
April 2020. As Bangladesh Navy had been quite vigilant since long and
were carrying out patrols round the clock to prevent illegal migration
of Rohingya from Myanmar, we, the sailors at sea, were alert. Our
mission was twofold -- first, to prevent another Rohingya influx, and
second, to intercept or rescue them if they are stranded.
We had been at sea since April 5, 2020 for various operations.
Looking for Rohingyas added a new dimension to our operations. I had
briefed my Operations Team regarding the importance of the mission,
mentioning the UN concern about the Rohingyas. So, we had devised our
plan of action under the guidance of Commander of the BN Fleet. There
were 5 BN ships that started patrolling in their designated sectors at
sea since April 2020. Our ship, BNS SOMUDRA AVIJAN, was deployed in the
southern-most sector. We were vigilant round the clock with constant
watch on radar and other surveillance equipment.
On May 7 midnight at about 0030 hrs, I got a call from the duty
officer who informed me that a suspicious contact was found at about 5
nautical miles (9.2 km) for from our ship. I rushed to the bridge (from
where we run a ship) and observed that among other contacts, a slightly
different one, likely to be a big mechanised boat, was heading towards
Bangladesh. At that time, we were 25 nm (46.3 km) SW of St Martin's
Island. Seeing the contact, I asked the duty officer to chase the boat
and get closer. Initially the boat was trying to flee towards Myanmar,
but with our ship's speed, they couldn't get away. Getting closer, I
looked through the binocular and confirmed the presence of a large
number of people on the boat, including women and children. Finally,
after 1 hour of chasing, we intercepted the boat and confirmed the
presence of approximately 287 Rohingya who, after being refused to
entry, were driven away by law enforcing agencies from Malaysian
waters.
As we learned, these Rohingya were at sea for about 2-3 months. They
went to seek refuge in Malaysia. What we came to know about their
experience was horrifying. They faced very rough seas, and many of them
couldn't eat anything for days. They had no food, nor water to drink for
last couple of days, and after dying of weakness, few of them had to be
thrown overboard. We were listening to their dreadful stories while we
had been giving them food, water, juice and first aid. I was so
dumbstruck to see two of them who were even fighting for a single saline
sachet. Alas! These are human beings! We had given whatever we could to
feed them and to bring their strength back. We cooked food for these
287 people. Finally, we handed over them to the concerned authority for
their safe shelter.
According to UNICEF and OCHA, the Rohingya people have faced decades
of systematic discrimination, statelessness and targeted violence in
Rakhine State, Myanmar. Such persecution has forced Rohingya women,
girls, boys and men into Bangladesh for many years, with significant
spikes following violent attacks in 1978, 1991-1992, and again in 2016.
Yet it was August 2017 that triggered by far the largest and fastest
refugee influx (around 700,000) into Bangladesh. Presently, around
919,000 Rohingya refugees live in southern Bangladesh, most of them in
the vast and teeming camps and settlements that have sprung up in Cox's
Bazar district, close to the border with Myanmar. A small portion live
in the neighbouring host communities of Teknaf and Ukhia. They have
nothing and therefore need everything. And Bangladesh, being a very
small country with huge populace and resource constraints, has shown
sympathy with courage to provide shelter to a total number of refugees,
more than the total population of countries like Bhutan, Fiji, Reunion
or Maldives.
UNHCR recognised that Bangladesh government has responded generously
throughout this Rohingya crisis. Local Bangladeshi villagers have also
taken the new arrivals as a part of philanthropy. They spared no effort
to help, straining their existing limited resources. Our Honourable
Prime Minister, the 'Mother of Humanity', Sheikh Hasina has again shown a
rare, bold, and unprecedented act of kindheartedness by allowing them
to stay and giving them their basic needs. Thus, the concerned
authorities and people of Bangladesh extended unstinting support to
these Rohingyas.
Providing shelter to near about 1 million Rohingya refugees is a
unique case compared to other refugee crises around the world. The
comparison between top 10 largest refugee hosting countries justifies
the courageous act of Bangladesh. Being the top ranked in population and
its density, and lower ranked in area of landmass and GDP, Bangladesh
could dare to host such a huge number of refugees. This is undoubtedly
rare, unparalleled and a true symbol of humanity.
Rohingyas are a stateless Muslim minority in Myanmar. According to
'Burma Gazetteer (1917) by RB Smart, the Rohingya community originated
during the early 9th century in Arakan (of Myanmar) after a ship
carrying Muslims from Arabia wrecked. Later, Muslim soldiers, traders,
fortune-seekers, slaves and more from Bengal and other regions of India
started to live permanently in Arakan in significant numbers. Their many
generations are already settled there. Though there had been a number
of tortures, repressions, atrocities and massacres including genocides
against this Rohingya occurred several times. But after British period,
again this Rohingya refugee crisis began in 60s, late 70s and it became
riotous recently. Now we are quite busy with tackling the crisis,
whereas, we should deeply look into the origin of the problem. It's
important to note why the refugees are fleeing their homes and
residences in Myanmar. One should think judiciously, how much logical is
the sudden extermination of few hundreds of thousands of inhabitants
from their homeland?
As a sailor, we will always be at sea to guard our maritime front and
protect our beloved nation. We will remain there round the clock
patrolling relentlessly to assist the seafarers, prevent illegal acts
and intercept culprits. But we hope not to intercept such illegal
migrants like Rohingya anymore. We want nations and international
communities to work hand in hand, look for the root causes of any crisis
and help prevent such atrocities in future as happened with the
helpless Rohingyas.
Written by Captain A F M Ahsan Uddin, NPP, BCGMS, psc, The Commanding Officer of BNS SOMUDRA AVIJAN.
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