US focuses on Myanmar issues, lauds Bangladesh's extraordinary generosity for Rohingyas

Dhaka Tribune 

UNB
April 9th, 2021

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to be recognized for Bangladesh's leadership in tackling climate crisis

The US remains very focused on helping all concerned in finding a solution to the Rohingya crisis and restoring democracy in Myanmar, John Kerry, the US special presidential envoy for climate, said on Friday.

He appreciated Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's leadership in demonstrating "extraordinary active generosity" which, he thinks, is very expensive for Bangladesh.

Kerry made the remarks while responding to a question at a joint briefing at state guesthouse Padma after his meeting with Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen in Dhaka.

He said the global community needed to step up in demonstrating their responsibility.

US Special Envoy: Restoring Democracy in Myanmar Will Ease Bangladesh's Rohingya Burden

Radio Free Asia

2021-04-09

US presidential climate envoy John Kerry (left) speaks during a press conference with Bangladesh foreign minister A.K. Abdul Momen in Dhaka, Apri 9, 2021

Updated at 3:25 p.m. ET on 2021-04-09

Democracy must be restored in Myanmar to ease the Rohingya refugee burden on Bangladesh, U.S. special envoy John Kerry said Friday during a lightning visit to the South Asian nation to drum up support for a Washington-hosted climate summit.

The American diplomat heaped praise on Bangladesh for its “extraordinary” generosity in sheltering the refugees from Myanmar, and even mentioned Dhaka’s controversial decision to relocate thousands to a flood-prone island.

He called the current situation in Myanmar “one of the great moral challenges of the planet today,” in referring to a coup and deadly violence against civilians by the same military that caused hundreds of thousands of traumatized Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh in 2017.

EU scales up aid for Rohingya fire victims

FINANCIAL EXPRESS

FE Online Desk

Published: April 08, 2021

The European Union is providing €150,000 (close to BDT 15 million) to step up its support for Rohingya refugees affected by the massive fire that swept through refugee camps in the Bangladeshi southern district of Cox’s Bazar in March this year.

This follows the initial assistance of €500,000 announced last week as an immediate response to the blaze.

“The fire has caused many Rohingya refugees, who have lived in displacement in camps over the past three years, to yet again lose almost everything,” said Daniela D'Urso who oversees the EU’s humanitarian response in Bangladesh.

Massive fire in Bangladesh’s Rohingya refugee camps leaves 45,000 people displaced

OXFAM

By Oxfam

April 6, 2021

Oxfam Senior Public Health Promotion Associate Arif Hossen helps refugees collect drinking water in the aftermath of a devastating fire in Bangladesh’s Rohingya refugee camps on March 22. The blaze spread rapidly for several hours in the densely populated camps, destroying homes and critical water and sanitation infrastructure. Oxfam emergency response teams are on the ground providing safe drinking water, hygiene kits, and emergency latrines. Mutasim Billah / Oxfam

Oxfam assisting survivors with clean water, soap, emergency latrines

A massive fire that swept through the refugee camps of Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, on March 22 has left 10,000 families—roughly 45,000 people—displaced and in urgent need of food, water, and sanitation services. The fire was yet another devastating blow to the Rohingya people who fled shocking violence and persecution in Myanmar.

Fire becomes new fear for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh

DW
Author Arafatul Islam
07.04.2021

Several deadly fire incidents in overcrowded Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh over the past several weeks point to a "very worrying trend," say experts.

A Rohingya refugee stands among the remains of burnt materials after a fire broke out recently at a camp in Cox's Bazar

Three Rohingya men died after a fire gutted shops at a makeshift market near the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh's southeastern Cox's Bazar district on Friday.

Their bodies were found in one of 20 shops burned after the fire broke out before dawn at the market near the Kutupalong refugee camp.

Fire in market at Rohingya camp in Bangladesh kills 3

AA

Md. Kamruzzaman 

DHAKA, Bangladesh

02.04.2021

At least 7 shops have been gutted, says fire service official

FILE PHOTO

At least three Rohingya refugees were killed and seven shops were gutted when a fire broke out early Friday in a market at the Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh’s southern district of Cox’s Bazar, in the second such incident in the past 10 days, according to official sources.

“We have recovered three bodies from inside the gutted shops,” Md Abdullah, deputy assistant director of Cox's Bazar Fire Service and Civil Defense, told Anadolu Agency.

Column by Mahfuz Anam: The trouble with our only other neighbour

The Daily Star
Mahfuz Anam
April 02, 2021

Global response focuses on the coup, ignoring the Rohingya problem

File photo of demonstrators protesting the military coup in Yangon, Myanmar. Photo: Reuters/Stringer

Myanmar is our only other neighbour, with India being the overwhelming first. To the credit of our policymakers, we have tried our best to maintain good relations with Myanmar notwithstanding their treatment of Rohingyas, forcing nearly 300,000 of them upon us thirty years ago, in the early nineties.

We really wanted to have a cordial relation, if not a warm one, with them. We thought if the whole world could trade with them, why couldn't we (especially after the withdrawal of western sanctions)? Thus, we reacted to the Rohingya influx of the nineties very softly. The tactics appeared to work when more than 230,000 of the 250,000 refugees from the first influx were repatriated, with the UNHCR playing an active role in the process. With about 20,000 remaining, we heaved a sigh of relief hoping that the rest would also be repatriated in time.

IOM Bangladesh: Rohingya Humanitarian Crisis Response, Situation Report on the Fire Response (One Week Later)

Situation Report 

Source :IOM
30 Mar 2021

Link : Here

Bangladesh: Assessment of the Education Sector response to the Rohingya crisis - Rohingya refugee response (March 2021)

Education Cluster
REACH,UNICEF
30 Mar 2021

Link : Here

Rohingya: Dhaka asks Delhi to play strong role in UNSC

Dhaka Tribune

UNB
March 28th, 2021

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina receiving her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi at her office ahead of the Bangladesh-India bilateral talks on Saturday, March 27, 2021 PID

Bangladesh and Myanmar signed a repatriation deal on November 23, 2017

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has requested that India, as a member of the United Nations Security Council, play a “strong role” in the early repatriation of the displaced Rohingyas to Myanmar.

Prime Minister Hasina and her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi recently reiterated the importance of the safe, speedy, and sustainable return of Rohingyas to their homeland for the greater security of the region.

Rohingya rebuild shelters after deadly Bangladesh camp fire

FRANCH 24

Balukhali (Bangladesh) (AFP)

5/03/2021

A Rohingya refugee child stands by his burnt home days after a fire at a refugee camp in Bangladesh's southeastern Cox's Bazar district Munir Uz zaman AFP

About 30,000 Rohingya refugees who fled a deadly blaze at camps in Bangladesh returned to their scorched shanties Thursday, seeking to rebuild their makeshift homes as others searched for missing relatives, officials and aid groups said.

The settlements in southeast Bangladesh -- home to nearly a million of the Muslim minority from Myanmar, many of whom escaped a military crackdown in 2017 -- were hit by a major fire on Monday that left at least 15 people dead and nearly 50,000 homeless.

Shelters being built in Bangladesh Rohingya camp after fire

AP

March 24, 2021

COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh (AP) — Authorities and volunteers from aid agencies in southern Bangladesh were rebuilding shelters on Wednesday for thousands of Rohingya refugees who lost their dwellings to a devastating fire that killed at least 15 people, including children, officials said

Thousands of refugees became homeless in Monday’s fire that raced through Balukhali camp at Ukhiya in Cox’s Bazar district, home to more than 1 million Rohingya refugees from neighboring Myanmar.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said more than 10,000 families lost their homes. The fire also destroyed dozens of learning centers for children, clinics, markets and aid distribution centers.

UNICEF Bangladesh Humanitarian Situation Report No. 1 (Rohingya Camp Fire): 23 March 2021

 

We’re part of China’s BRI but India our ‘most important partner’: Bangladesh foreign advisor

THE PRINT

PIA KRISHNANKUTTY 

24 March, 2021 

'We are very willing to be a part of Indo-Pacific relationship,' Gowher Rizvi, international affairs advisor to Bangladesh PM, said at a virtual event hosted by London-based IISS.

Gowher Rizvi | Commons

New Delhi: Bangladesh has said it is “not going to choose” between India and China as it expressed desire to join the “Indo-Pacific relationship”, though it is part of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

“We are part of China’s BRI but we are very willing to be a part of the Indo-Pacific relationship… we are not going to choose [between India and China],” Gowher Rizvi, international affairs advisor to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, said during a virtual seminar hosted by London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies Tuesday.

At least 11 dead as massive fire destroys thousands of homes in Bangladesh Rohingya refugee camps

CNN
By Rebecca Wright, Mitchell McCluskey, Salman Saeed and Salman Saeed,
March 23, 2021

 

Flames engulf a Rohingya refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bagladesh on Monday.

(CNN)A fire swept through a sprawling Rohingya refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, Monday, killing at least eleven people, destroying homes and endangering the lives of tens of thousands of refugees, according to the Bangladesh government.

The fire destroyed at least 10,000 shelters as it tore through the camp, according to the Inter Sector Coordination Group (ISCG) in Bangladesh.

Thousands left homeless after fire rips through Rohingya camp in Bangladesh

INDEPENDENT
Vincent Wood
@wood_vincent
23 Arch 2021

 
‘It is another devastating blow to the Rohingya refugees who live here’, Country Director of Save the Children in Bangladesh says

A fire in the Rohingya refugee camp in southern Bangladesh has destroyed thousands of homes and killed several people, officials and witnesses have said in the wake of one of the worst blazes to hit the settlement in recent years.

While neither UN nor Bangladeshi officials engaged with the camp could confirm the number of deaths, refugees in the settlement said several had died in the fire that had torn through the Balukhali camp in Cox’s Bazar.

ED: Doing right by the Rohingya

Dhaka Tribune 

Tribune Editorial
March 21st, 2021

Photo: MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

We require allies and partners who will support Bangladesh in holding Myanmar accountable

When it comes to addressing the Rohingya crisis, particularly with respect to their repatriation, it is unfortunate that the situation remains mostly stagnant, with little to no progress.

To that end, Bangladesh’s persistence to find solutions must be admired, and the fact that recently, Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen discussed repatriating the Rohingya when he met Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa is proof that Bangladesh continues to do what is the right thing to do -- search for allies and eventually provide justice for the Rohingya and help them get back home safely.

For Rohingya Survivors, Art Bears Witness

The New York Times

By Patricia Leigh Brown
March 19, 2021

They escaped traumatic circumstances in Myanmar and now live in harsh conditions. But refugees are creating murals drawn from their flourishing cultural traditions, reborn in Bangladesh camps.

The Artolution art center at the Balukhali camp in Bangladesh, where Rohingya refugees, trauma survivors, use the power of the paintbrush to create murals about Covid-19, the dangers of domestic violence and other public health concerns.Credit...Bengal Creative Media, via Artolution

 

Before he fled Myanmar in 2017, a witness to unspeakable horrors in his Rohingya village, Mohammed Nur would produce art in hiding, drawing on napkins and trash with bits of charcoal. Art, poetry readings and a university education were among many aspects of life that were not allowed for Rohingya Muslims like himself.

WFP Bangladesh | Rohingya Refugee Response Situation Report #47 - February 2021

 

Shahriar: Saudi Arabia won't send back Rohingyas to Bangladesh

Dhaka Tribune
UNB
March 10th, 2021

File photo of Scores of Rohingya Muslims sit on the floor of the Shumaisi detention centre in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, as the authorities prepare to deport the men to Bangladesh Nay San Lwin/Al Jazeera

KSA assures of interim arrangement for irregular Bangladesh expatriates to have health facilities and employment, he said

The Saudi government did not say that the Rohingyas, living in Saudi Arabia, will be sent back to Bangladesh, said State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md. Shahriar Alam on Wednesday.

“No, Saudi Arabia didn’t say that they’ll send back Rohingyas to Bangladesh,” he told reporters at his office at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs referring to his meeting with his Saudi counterpart Adel Al-Jubeir during his recent visit there.

The state minister said his Saudi counterpart made it clear that “they’ve no as such issue” with Bangladesh.