MNESTY INTERNATIONAL
30 September 2025
30 September 2025
By Joe Freeman, Myanmar Researcher at Amnesty International, and Carolyn Nash, Asia Advocacy Director at Amnesty International USA
This story was originally published by The New Humanitarian
Thirteen-year-old Nasima is scared of the dark.
But the Rohingya girl’s fears are not imaginary.
For her, the monsters are real: criminal gangs that stalk her refugee camp at night.
“After 7pm, we turn off the light in fear of the robber,” she said. “At nighttime, we cannot go out, even to go to the toilet.”
“Night is dark for us.”
This story was originally published by The New Humanitarian
Thirteen-year-old Nasima is scared of the dark.
But the Rohingya girl’s fears are not imaginary.
For her, the monsters are real: criminal gangs that stalk her refugee camp at night.
“After 7pm, we turn off the light in fear of the robber,” she said. “At nighttime, we cannot go out, even to go to the toilet.”
“Night is dark for us.”
Nasima was a young child when she and her family fled their homes in Myanmar in 2017, escaping military operations that killed thousands, razed entire villages, and pushed more than 700,000 Rohingya into precarious camps in Bangladesh. Having endured a childhood in the world’s largest refugee camp, where 1.2 million Rohingya now live, she nevertheless remains optimistic about her future, with dreams of becoming a lawyer.
Nasima is luckier than most. She is able to attend a camp school that charges affordable tuition fees. Her days are regimented by prayer, study, painting, and spending time at a local recreational club with friends.
Still, she sees decline all around her, rattling off a list of societal ailments: domestic violence has become more frequent; so has gambling; and she warns that child marriage will increase.
Today, the UN General Assembly is hosting a high-level conference on the situation of the Rohingya and other minorities in Myanmar. While the overall goal is for Rohingya to be able to go home to Myanmar, few are under any illusion that it can happen any time soon. Northern Rakhine State, where most of the Rohingya in the Bangladesh camps are from, is now under the control of the Arakan Army, which is engaged in active conflict with the Myanmar military and Rohingya armed groups.
To many in Myanmar, the Arakan Army is seen as a liberating force that is waging a just fight against the Myanmar military, which, since seizing power in 2021, has killed more than 7,000 civilians in a widespread campaign of arbitrary detention, burning of villages, and indiscriminate airstrikes against schools, hospitals, and camps sheltering displaced people.
But to many Rohingya who have fled their rule to Bangladesh, the Arakan Army have come to resemble yet another oppressor in a long line of institutions and individuals who have denied Rohingya their rights as citizens of Myanmar. That includes the Myanmar military and even the ousted civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi, who defended the military against genocide charges at the International Court of Justice in 2019. Despite putting what remained of her reputation as a human rights champion on the line to face those accusations, the military still detained her during the 2021 coup and she remains imprisoned.
Amnesty International, the UN’s human rights office (OHCHR), and many others have documented serious abuses by the Arakan Army against Rohingya civilians, including extrajudicial executions, forced labour, and arbitrary detention. While the Arakan Army has largely denied these allegations, pointing to attacks by the Myanmar military, Rohingya armed groups, and security challenges during an armed conflict, it has yet to demonstrate that it can provide the Rohingya people with the full rights they are owed.
Whatever authority exists in Rakhine State, it has to take these points into consideration, or risk repeating the mistakes and abuses of history. As OHCHR’s latest report puts it, “without addressing the root causes of the Rohingya crisis, which include ensuring their rights to security, citizenship, and equality, the cycle of violence against the Rohingya, their statelessness, and systemic exclusion will continue.”
Nasima is luckier than most. She is able to attend a camp school that charges affordable tuition fees. Her days are regimented by prayer, study, painting, and spending time at a local recreational club with friends.
Still, she sees decline all around her, rattling off a list of societal ailments: domestic violence has become more frequent; so has gambling; and she warns that child marriage will increase.
Today, the UN General Assembly is hosting a high-level conference on the situation of the Rohingya and other minorities in Myanmar. While the overall goal is for Rohingya to be able to go home to Myanmar, few are under any illusion that it can happen any time soon. Northern Rakhine State, where most of the Rohingya in the Bangladesh camps are from, is now under the control of the Arakan Army, which is engaged in active conflict with the Myanmar military and Rohingya armed groups.
To many in Myanmar, the Arakan Army is seen as a liberating force that is waging a just fight against the Myanmar military, which, since seizing power in 2021, has killed more than 7,000 civilians in a widespread campaign of arbitrary detention, burning of villages, and indiscriminate airstrikes against schools, hospitals, and camps sheltering displaced people.
But to many Rohingya who have fled their rule to Bangladesh, the Arakan Army have come to resemble yet another oppressor in a long line of institutions and individuals who have denied Rohingya their rights as citizens of Myanmar. That includes the Myanmar military and even the ousted civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi, who defended the military against genocide charges at the International Court of Justice in 2019. Despite putting what remained of her reputation as a human rights champion on the line to face those accusations, the military still detained her during the 2021 coup and she remains imprisoned.
Amnesty International, the UN’s human rights office (OHCHR), and many others have documented serious abuses by the Arakan Army against Rohingya civilians, including extrajudicial executions, forced labour, and arbitrary detention. While the Arakan Army has largely denied these allegations, pointing to attacks by the Myanmar military, Rohingya armed groups, and security challenges during an armed conflict, it has yet to demonstrate that it can provide the Rohingya people with the full rights they are owed.
Whatever authority exists in Rakhine State, it has to take these points into consideration, or risk repeating the mistakes and abuses of history. As OHCHR’s latest report puts it, “without addressing the root causes of the Rohingya crisis, which include ensuring their rights to security, citizenship, and equality, the cycle of violence against the Rohingya, their statelessness, and systemic exclusion will continue.”
Nearly half the refugees are children
In the meantime, Rohingya children, who make up almost half the population of the camp, face urgent protection needs. But the funds to meet them are disappearing. As the US under President Donald Trump pulls back from the humanitarian landscape, the aid response in Cox’s Bazar is, as of August 31, only 37% funded for this year, the lowest level since 2017.
Many of the problems facing youth in the camps predate the recent trend away from humanitarian funding. But that sudden drop is making these problems much worse.
On our trip there in July, we saw the consequences.
We spoke to teenagers who lost access to NGO-run schools, which had served as both educational facilities and places of safety amid a rise in unlawful recruitment by armed groups, gang violence, and kidnappings.
In one camp, we saw children playing in the street in front of a locked and abandoned classroom. In another, the walls had been literally removed from a “child-friendly community space”, leaving a skeletal reminder of the international community’s broken commitment to protect children’s safety.
“Even when our funding was stable, still it was not sufficient – not in food, in medicine, in school, in anything. And now you decrease from that?” said one teacher.
Another teacher said that when thousands of UNICEF-run schools had to be temporarily suspended in June due to lack of funding, his students turned to child labour.
“We want to get an education. Please stop reducing the funds.”
“I saw my students collecting bottles and trash for money,” one teacher told us. “I really feel sad. After only a few days without school, they are already engaged in this. What if it continues for a long time? All the young children will be like this.”
While some educational services have resumed for older students, and more funding may be secured, for some it is already too late, with reports of child labour and child marriage already rising; as well as pressure growing on families to take dangerous journeys by boat to third countries.
Jamal, a 17-year-old who said he wanted to be a Rohingya community leader, spoke of seeing his friends become aimless after having to leave school. One is working as a child labourer; three others have fled to Malaysia by boat with relatives. Another boy, aged 12, had a message to donors: “We want to get an education. Please stop reducing the funds.”
Aid cuts have also reduced staffing and forced the closure of safe spaces for child protection services. Kidnappings remain a persistent problem. We heard harrowing stories of children stolen in broad daylight and offered back after forcing their parents to pay enormous ransoms, for which they went into debt. The kids return traumatised.
Everyone spoke of dwindling resources and having to make do with less. LPG cylinders, used for cooking fuel, were in short supply at the time of our visit and due to run out soon. The scarcity has contributed to tensions with the host community in Bangladesh, as some refugees strayed into nearby fields to cut down firewood, angering local residents who have economic hardships of their own.
Countries in the region need to step up
While the US continues to provide humanitarian aid to Bangladesh, it’s less than a third of the 2024 total, according to the most recently available statistics. But as the biggest donor historically, the US cannot be relied upon to contribute the lion’s share forever. Other countries need to step up too.
As the host country working under an interim government after a youth uprising and with elections coming in February, Bangladesh has much on its plate, and cannot do it alone. But it also has to be willing to make bold choices that may be unpopular. If the Rohingya cannot yet return, and dwindling funding becomes more the status quo than the occasional blip, only a few options remain.
Widening resources for Rohingya education, access to healthcare, and regularising their stay to enable employment opportunities and freedom of movement would be a good place to start. Bangladesh should also work to better its fractured relationship with the Arakan Army, which has de facto control over the territory that Bangladesh wants to repatriate the Rohingya to. As of now, the Arakan Army blames Bangladesh for allegedly allowing Rohingya armed groups to launch attacks across its borders. Further armed conflict is no recipe for repatriation, and will only further delay it or make it impossible. Aid, not arms, should be going across the border.
Countries in the region can help by creating alternative pathways for Rohingya looking to go to school or work. Some are quietly helping, but it’s not sufficient. The alternative, of sending people back to Rakhine State against their will, or allowing conditions to deteriorate further until people are forced to flee by boat to third country destinations, would be disastrous.
Finally, Bangladesh should let an independent Rohingya civil society flourish, not attempt to create one from scratch with handpicked Rohingya leaders. It should also show progress on the investigation into the 2021 assassination of Rohingya community leader Mohib Ullah, a murder for which to date no one has been held accountable.
In a recent report seeking perspectives from the camps about ways forward, 45% of Rohingya refugee respondents said there is no effective leadership. It’s their future, and they should be the ones to decide it. Here’s hoping that the conference in New York is the beginning of a new era where Rohingya like Nasima, Jamal, and others get to take that future in their own hands.
The New Humanitarian puts quality, independent journalism at the service of the millions of people affected by humanitarian crises around the world. Find out more at www.thenewhumanitarian.org
Link : Here
No comments:
Post a Comment