‘What will happen to my child?’

The Daily Star

Shuprova Tasneem
June 20, 2021

And other questions that haunt refugees

File photo of a Rohingya child at Unchiparang refugee camp, Bangladesh. Photo: Reuters/Tyrone Siu

I first met six-year-old Amina in the Kutupalong refugee camp in 2019. I couldn't help noticing the forlorn image of life in the camps she depicted—a child alone in a corner, playing with a pair of matchboxes instead of a toy. Later, Amina's mother told me that she was hiding under the bed when the Myanmar military surrounded their household in Rakhine. She watched them kill her father and grandfather, and lay hidden while they gang-raped her mother. She hadn't said a word to anyone outside of her family since then.

Amina's mother also spoke of how lost she felt now that her parents and husband were dead. She lamented, "What will happen to my child?" During visits to the refugee camps, I have heard this refrain over and over again from Rohingya parents—"what will happen to my child?"

Bangladesh FM seeks UN road map for Rohingya repatriation

NEWAGE

Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha . Dhaka
Jun 18,2021 

Foreign minister AK Abdul Momen, who is now visiting the US, sought a clear roadmap from the United Nations regarding early repatriation of forcibly displaced persecuted Rohingyas from Bangladesh to their land of origin in Myanmar.        

‘We need a clear roadmap from the UN for repatriation of Rohingyas to Myanmar,’ he said at a bilateral meeting with special envoy of the UN secretary general on Myanmar Christine S Burgener at the Bangladesh permanent mission in New York on Wednesday, said a release received in Dhaka on Thursday.

 

Bangladesh seeks UN intervention to end Rohingya crisis

THE NATION

Anadolu
June 18, 2021

Bangladesh urged UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to help resolve the Rohingya crisis, saying deteriorating political situation in Myanmar is hampering the peaceful repatriation of refugees.

Bangladesh is currently hosting about 1.2 million Rohingya refugees in camps in the southeast coast of Cox’s Bazar. Uncertainty looms over their repatriation to Rakhine state following a military coup in Myanmar on Feb. 1.

ED: How much longer will it take?

Dhaka Tribune
Tribune Editorial
June 18th, 2021

MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

We must address the root causes of the crisis, and the root lies in Myanmar

While nuance and diplomacy are no doubt crucial in international politics, should they supersede the needs of a people who have escaped indescribable pain and suffering, and wish nothing more than to go back home?

Unfortunately, when it comes to the Rohingya, the international community has been slow to move: The journey from silence to hesitant support to full-fledged condemnation has taken many powerful nations years to conclude, and this has allowed Myanmar to play dumb, break promises, delay, and worst of all, deny the Rohingya not only the right to return to their homeland of Rakhine, but even justice, refusing to acknowledge the atrocities and hold those responsible to account.

IOM mulls vaccination campaign for Rohingyas

NEWAGE

United News of Bangladesh . Dhaka 

Jun 16,2021

The International Organisation for Migration has said it is working closely with the government and the humanitarian community to ramp up the delivery of a wide range of support services for Rohingyas and host communities in Cox’s Bazar district to fight Covid-19.

‘It is imperative to strengthen our assistance and not let the situation deteriorate any further before it becomes impossible for the existing healthcare services to cope,’ said Manuel Marques Pereira, IOM deputy chief of mission in Bangladesh.

A second wave of Covid-19 is ravaging South Asia, including Bangladesh, said IOM on Tuesday.

The Rohingya: refugees forever?

Asia Media Centre

Robert Bociaga

16 JUNE 2021

The Rohingya people have long suffered persecution. They risked their lives to escape to Bangladesh and other countries by sea or on foot following the Myanmar military offensive of August 2017. The massacres in Rakhine State were labelled by the United Nations a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing". Back then, the world's attention was fixed on this little-known strip of land in southern Bangladesh near the town of Cox's Bazar. So what has changed for Rohingyas since the military coup in Myanmar, and has the world moved on to other issues? Robert Bociaga reports

Rohingyas Getting Citizenship: ACC sues ex-CCC councillor, 5 others

The Daily Star

FM Mizanur Rahaman

June 15, 2021

The Anti-Corruption Commission yesterday filed a case against six people, including a former ward councillor of Chattogram City Corporation and three Rohingyas, for issuing citizenship and birth certificates to Rohingyas.

Deputy Assistant Director Sharif Uddin of ACC Integrated Office Chattogram lodged the case with ACC Integrated Office Chattogram-1, said the ACC sources.

The accused are: Ismail Bali, 49, former councillor of Patharghata ward of CCC, Subarna Dutta, assistant of birth certificate issue section of the ward office, Rohingya broker Sirajul Islam, and three Rohingyas -- Mohammed Ismail, 56, his wife Meher Jan, 42, and Wahida, 26.

UN put Rohingya ‘at risk’ by sharing data without consent, says rights group

the Guardian
Kate Hodal
@katehodal
Tue 15 Jun 2021

Refugees tell Human Rights Watch they fear forced repatriation and persecution after personal details passed on to Myanmar

People wait to be registered in a UN centre in Kutupalong camp. Photograph: Andy Hall/The Observer

The UN may have put hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees at risk of persecution or involuntary repatriation back to Myanmar after improperly collecting and sharing refugees’ personal information with Bangladesh, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW), which is urging an investigation.

Over the past three years, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has registered more than 800,000 Rohingya refugees living in Bangladeshi camps in order to provide them with identity cards needed to access essential aid and services.

Six bodies of Rohingya found in Bangladesh’s river

Eastern Eyes
SwatiRana
14 June, 2021

THE Bangladeshi police has recovered six bodies of Rohingya including four children from the Naf River since Saturday (12).

On Monday (14) a Rohingya child and a woman were found dead on the riverbank at Hneela union of the upazila, said Teknaf Model police station officer-in-charge Md Hafizur Rahman.

The law enforcers suspect that the victims drowned after the boat, headed illegally for Bangladesh territory and with them on board, capsized in the river between Sunday evening and the early hours of Monday, the Dhaka Tribune reported.

Bangladesh asks for Saudi Arabia's help repatriating Rohingya

DAILY SABAH
BY ANADOLU AGENCY
DHAKA ASIA PACIFIC
JUN 14, 2021

A group of Rohingya refugees, mostly women and children, gather on Pulau Idaman, a small island just off the coast of East Aceh, in northern Sumatra on June 6, 2021, after a group of 81 refugees landed on June 4, in the latest wave of Rohingya arrivals. (AFP Photo)

Bangladesh is seeking the cooperation of Saudi Arabia to facilitate the sustainable repatriation of Rohingya Muslims to their home country, Myanmar.

Bangladeshi Foreign Minister A. K. Abdul Momen made the appeal while speaking to his Saudi counterpart Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud over phone, said a statement by the Bangladeshi Foreign Ministry on Saturday.

Bangladesh seeks Saudi Arabia's help in repatriation of Rohingya

MIDDLE EAST MONITOR

June 13, 2021

A view from the Rohingya refugee camp in Ukhia, Bangladesh on March 24, 2021 [Stringer/Anadolu Agency]

Bangladesh has sought the cooperation of Saudi Arabia for a sustainable repatriation of Rohingya Muslims to their home country, Myanmar, reports Anadolu Agency.

Bangladeshi Foreign Minister A. K. Abdul Momen made the appeal while speaking to his Saudi counterpart Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud over the phone, said a statement by the Bangladeshi Foreign Ministry on Saturday.

Myanmar conflict may bring ethnic groups together

The Daily Star
Mokbul Morshed Ahmad
June 12, 2021

Photo: Reuters

With the February 2021 military coup, Myanmar once again hit global media headlines. While the military junta continues to clamp down on pro-democracy protestors and the country is wracked with conflict and unrest, how will the changing political situation affect the Rohingya community in Bangladesh and in Rakhine State in Myanmar?

More than one-third of Myanmar's population is composed of ethnic minorities, who inhabit a vast frontier where the country's natural resources are concentrated. They have staged periodic insurgencies against the military, which has ruled the country for most of the past six decades. The National League for Democracy (NLD) is the only nationally popular political force in Myanmar, but it has a recent history of turning a blind eye to the persecution of ethnic minorities, especially in Rakhine. Although the party won a landslide re-election in November 2020, more than one million members of ethnic minorities were disenfranchised during the vote. The British, who colonised what was then known as Burma, called the country "a zone of racial instability".

Beyond the Coup in Myanmar: The Views of Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh

JUST SECURITY

Jessica Olney and Shabbir Ahmad
June 10, 2021

Editor’s Note: This article is part of a Just Security series on the Feb. 1, 2021 coup in Myanmar. The series brings together expert local and international voices on the coup and its broader context. The series is a collaboration between Just Security and the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School.

This installment reflects conversations with Rohingya residents of refugee camps in Bangladesh about the coup in Myanmar. Camp residents’ views were collected by Shabbir Ahmad and other members of a team of Rohingya researchers during a recent community feedback collection project. The opinions expressed here are the views of the authors and camp residents, not those of any institution with which the authors are affiliated.

Bangladesh island gets UNHCR nod for Rohingya

ARAB NEWS

SHEHAB SUMON

04 June 2021

Bangladeshi authorities have shifted 18,000 out of a planned 100,000 people to the island to take pressure off Cox’s Bazar. (Reuters/File

• The UNHCR had voiced concerns as to whether it was safe as the island is vulnerable to severe weather and flooding

DHAKA: The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has recognized Bhasan Char as a potential location for the Rohingya seeking shelter in Bangladesh despite recent protests by some of the refugees living in the remote, cyclone-prone island.

Since December, Bangladeshi authorities have shifted 18,000 out of a planned 100,000 people to the island to take pressure off Cox’s Bazar, a city in Bangladesh that already hosts more than 1.1 million Rohingya Muslims, members of an ethnic and religious minority group who fled persecution in neighboring Myanmar during a military crackdown in 2017.

Bangladesh, Japan agree to work together for tackling Covid-19, Rohingya crisis

The Daily Star
Star Digital Report
June 09, 2021

Japanese Ambassador Ito Naoki calls on Bangladesh's State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam at his office on June 8, 2021. Photo: Collected

Bangladesh and Japan have agreed to work together to tackle the challenges of Covid-19 and Rohingya crisis.

The consensus came when Japanese Ambassador Ito Naoki called on State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam at his office yesterday (Tuesday).

They comprehensively discussed the bilateral relations and issues of common concerns, says a foreign ministry statement today.

Rohingya on Bangladesh island feel trapped, fear monsoons: HRW

ALJAZEERA

7 Jun 2021

Human Rights Watch interviews 167 refugees and says they were moved ‘without full, informed consent’ and prevented from returning to the mainland.

Rohingya refugees are seen at the housing complex of Bhasan Char island after they were relocated [File: Mohammad Al-Masum Molla/AFP]

Rohingya refugees moved to a Bangladesh island fear they will be exposed to terrible conditions during the upcoming monsoon season, and are struggling with “inadequate” health and education facilities, a Human Rights Watch report said.

About 18,800 refugees have been moved from the Cox’s Bazar region – where approximately 850,000 people live in squalid and cramped conditions after fleeing Myanmar – to the low-lying silt island of Bhasan Char in the Bay of Bengal.

Saudi aid agency helps thousands of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh

ARAB NEWS
LAMA ALHAMAWI
June 06, 2021

The center has provided nearly $7 million in support to refugees and families in need. (SPA)

In January alone, it distributed more than 43 tons of food baskets benefiting 9,000 people living in camps in the southern city of Cox's Bazar

Bangladesh adds feather to cap as UN lauds Rohingya rehabilitation in Bay of Bengal island

THE ECONOMIC TIMES
Dipanjan Roy Chaudhury
ET Bureau
Jun 04, 2021,

Bhashan Char is a much better place than the Rohingya camps in Cox's Bazar, observed the UN delegation that visited the island recently

Bangladesh has added yet another feather to its cap with the UN lauding its efforts to address the woes of Rohingya refugees including in the Bhashan Char island in Bay of Bengal.

Bhashan Char is a much better place than the Rohingya camps in Cox's Bazar, observed the UN delegation that visited the island recently. "The Bangladesh government has made an important investment in Bhashan Char…," said UN Assistant High Commissioner for Refugees (Protection) Rouf Mazou.

Rohingya protest against living conditions on Bangladesh island

Aljazeera
1 Jun 2021

Police say 4,000 refugees demonstrated when senior UN officials arrived on remote Bhasan Char island to visit the settlement.

Rohingya seen inside a tent as they wait to get on board a ship to Bhasan Char island, in Chattogram, Bangladesh [File: Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters]

Several thousand Rohingya refugees have staged “unruly” protests against living conditions on a cyclone-prone island off Bangladesh where they were moved from vast camps on the mainland, police said.

Since December, Bangladesh has shifted 18,000 out of a planned 100,000 refugees to the low-lying silt island of Bhashan Char from the Cox’s Bazar region, where around 850,000 people live in squalid and cramped conditions.

Bangladesh may be forced to recognize Myanmar’s national unity government

ARAB NEWS

DR. AZEEM IBRAHIM
May 28, 2021

Rohingya refugees receive aid distributed by local organizations at Balukhali makeshift refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, Sept. 14, 2017. (Reuters)

As Bangladesh continues to struggle to provide adequately for the Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar, near the border with Myanmar, the best possible solution for everyone involved — from the Rohingya themselves to their hosts — would be if the refugees could safely return home to their ancestral lands. But, whereas the previous government of Myanmar under Aung San Suu Kyi at least pretended it was interested in allowing the Rohingya to return, the new military junta has already indicated it will stop pretending altogether.