SAV Explainer: International Law Has Failed to Protect the Rohingya Refugees

South Asian Voice
Written by Himel Rahman
October 10, 2023

On 25 August 2023, 1.3 million Rohingya refugees residing in southeastern Bangladesh observed ‘Genocide Day.’ This marked the 6th anniversary of their mass expulsion from northern Rakhine by the Tatmadaw, the Myanmar Armed Forces. The Rohingyas are one of the most persecuted ethnic minority groups in the world and the international community has so far failed to uphold their rights, allowing flagrant violations of international law.

KS relief provides Rohingya refugee women and children lifesaving aid

ARAB NEWS
SHEHAB SUMON
September 08, 2022 

In this photo taken in May 2022, Rohingya beneficiaries of KSrelief aid are seen at a refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. (KSrelief)

• Over $25m already for Bangladesh’s squalid Cox’s Bazar
• Maternal care, food, shelter and education provided

DHAKA: When in 2017 Rohingya Muslims fled persecution in Myanmar, most sought shelter in neighboring Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar that now has over 1.2 million living in squalid conditions, and where Saudi Arabia is focusing part of its global relief efforts.

The mass arrival of Rohingyas has turned the coastal region of the country’s southeast into the world’s largest refugee settlement, with women and children being the biggest and most vulnerable group dependent on external aid.

Although Bangladesh is not a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, it has been hosting and providing humanitarian support for those displaced. But many complex interventions require costly care, and Saudi Arabia has been a key donor.

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

'Rohingyas living in KSA to get passports'

THE ASIAN AGE 

Salman Farshi, AA
13 January 2021 

55 thousand Rohingyas who have gone to Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) will get Bangladeshi passports. Saudi Arabia has requested Bangladesh government to issue passports to these Rohingyas. Foreign Minister Dr. AK Abdul Momen conveyed this information on Tuesday. He further said that it is a wrong information that Saudi Arabia wants to send these Rohingyas back to Bangladesh.A great number of Rohingyas migrated to Saudi Arabia during the 70s and 80s. These Rohingyas will stay in Saudi Arabia, Dr. AK Abdul Momen stated. Saudi Arabia will only send back 452 Rohingyas who are inside prison in that country. 

Riyadh’s pressure on Dhaka unfair

The Daily Star
Porimol Palma
September 25, 2020

Analysts, activists say about insistence that 54,000 Rohingyas in KSA be issued Bangladeshi passports; Momen says no passport without proof

Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen. File photo

The Saudi Arabian pressure on Bangladesh to issue passports to 54,000 Rohingyas and bring back 462 others is unacceptable and unfair, analysts and Rohingya activists have said.

They said if the kingdom was really to send back the Rohingyas, they should mount pressure on Myanmar. They questioned as to why Bangladesh, which had taken in over a million Rohingyas, should take the 54,000 more.

3000 Rohingyas get food from King Salman Humanitarian Relief Centre

businessnews24bd.com

on May 12, 2019

Cox’s Bazar  Correspondent 

King Salman Humanatrian Aid and Relief Centre distributed Iftar items among 3000 Rohingya refugees through International Organization for Relief, Welfare and Development (IORWD) at Kutupalong camp No 1 and 2 in Cox’s Bazar on Saturday .

Iftar items basket weighing 25 kgs include rice, lentls , sugar , salt and edible oil. 

Saudi Arabia torturing detained Rohingya Muslims on hunger strike

ABNA
April 18, 2019

 

 Saudi Arabia is torturing hundreds of Rohingya detainees to force them to end a hunger strike they have staged to oppose their indefinite detention or potential deportation from the Persian Gulf Arab kingdom, a report says.  

AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): Saudi Arabia is torturing hundreds of Rohingya detainees to force them to end a hunger strike they have staged to oppose their indefinite detention or potential deportation from the Persian Gulf Arab kingdom, a report says.

Group calls for release of hundreds of Rohingya in Saudi detention centre

FTM
FMT Reporters
April 18, 2019

PETALING JAYA: A group representing Rohingya concerns in Malaysia has spoken in defence of hundreds of its countrymen who went on a hunger strike to protest their seven-year detention in Saudi Arabia. 

Saudi Arabia accused of torturing Rohingya detainees to end hunger strike

MIDDLE EAST EYE
By Areeb Ullah

Published date: 17 April 2019

Rohingya detainees began the hunger strike to oppose their deportations and indefinite detention in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia has continued to deport Rohingya detainees despite UN calls to give them refuge (Supplied)

Scores of stateless Rohingya refugees detained inside a Saudi detention centre have gone on hunger strike to demand an end to their indefinite detention in the Gulf kingdom.

'We're broken': Rohingya on hunger strike in Saudi detention

Aljazeera
by Saba Aziz

At least seven hospitalised after 650 Rohingya men refuse food at a detention centre in Jeddah, activists say.

Family members of detainees call for their release at a camp in Bangladesh [Courtesy: Ambia Perveen]

 

Scores of Rohingya detainees inside a Saudi detention centre have gone on a hunger strike for the third time in recent months, activists told Al Jazeera.

Two 'traffickers' held in Dhaka.

The Daily Star
Thursday, "March 28, 2019"
4 Rohingya women were being sent to Saudi Arabia

Staff Correspondent

Rapid Action Battalion claimed to have arrested two members of a human trafficking gang in the capital, who were trying to traffic four Rohingya women to Saudi Arabia by forging documents.

Saudi Arabia release 'hundreds' of Rohingya held in detention for years

Middle East Eye 

By Areeb Ullah
Published date: 11 March 2019  

While Rohingyas who arrived before 2011 or were born in the kingdom go free, hundreds still languish in prison, say detainees and activist-

Detainees say Saudi Arabia released Rohingya who weren't registered with a foreign passport (Screengrab)

Saudi Arabia has released hundreds of stateless Rohingya detained in the kingdom for years after they were caught up in Saudi immigration crackdowns against undocumented workers, two detainees and an activist tell Middle East Eye.

UN asks Saudi Arabia not to deport Rohingya

January 25, 2019 at 8:02 pm | Published in:Middle East, Myanmar, News, Saudi Arabia, UN

 
A top UN official on Friday urged Saudi Arabia not to deport members of the persecuted Rohingya community to Bangladesh but instead to grant them refugee status, Anadolu Agency reports.

“I am dismayed by Saudi Arabia’s recent deportation of 13 Rohingya to Bangladesh,” said Yanghee Lee, UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, at a news briefing in Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka.

Are all Rohingyas converging on Bangladesh?

Abdul Aziz, Cox’s Bazar       Published at 12:45 am January 23rd, 2019

With each passing days as more and more Rohingyas are being made to leave India and Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh is now having to accept more refugees than this country ever thought of hosting

Why is Saudi Arabia deporting Rohingya refugees?

Saudi Arabia has long projected an image of itself as a defender of Muslims, that claim is increasingly being challenged as it now sends Rohingya refugees back to Bangladesh – a country they had fled.

Smart diplomacy needed to stop Rohingya deportation by KSA ( Article )

The New Nation 

Wednesday, January 9, 2019 10:47:01 PM


DAYS after India deported a Rohingya Muslim family of five lodged at an Assam prison to Myanmar, the Saudi authorities on Tuesday deported 13 Rohingyas to Bangladesh, who had travelled to the Kingdom with Bangladeshi passports around seven years back. Newspapers reported that, Riyadh may send back more Rohingyas, now kept in detention camps in Jeddah, creating more worries for Bangladesh which is already burdened with over 1.2 million Rohingya refugees.

How did Rohingyas get Bangladeshi passports?

The Daily Star

January 11, 2019

As reported by the domestic and international media, dozens of stateless Rohingya individuals are being deported to Bangladesh from Saudi Arabia. They allegedly went to the country with Bangladeshi passports, which they had obtained from smugglers who manufactured fake or counterfeit documents for them. Some of them are now being sent to Bangladesh, having spent years languishing in jail, while some others still remaining there.

Amnesty criticises Bangladesh for jailing Rohingya deported from Saudi Arabia

MIDDLE EAST EYE

By Areeb Ullah

Published date: 10 January 2019

 

Rohingya deported from Saudi Arabia to Bangladesh face jail after confessing to using forged Bangladeshi passports to go to the Gulf kingdom (Supplied)

The human rights group described Bangladesh's decision to jail deported Rohingya as 'deeply distressing'

Saudi Arabia deports dozens of Rohingya to Bangladesh: MEE (AJ)

Video footage shows men handcuffed, lined up for deportation to Bangladesh, where they will become refugees.

Dozens of Rohingya are being deported from Saudi Arabia to Bangladesh, despite being from neighbouring Myanmar.

In video footage sent to the Middle East Eye website on Sunday, men are seen lined up for deportation at the Shumaisi detention centre in Jeddah.

13 Rohingyas detained in KSA deported to Bangladesh

The Daily Star
January 09, 2019

The Saudi authorities yesterday deported to Bangladesh at least 13 Rohingyas, who had travelled to the kingdom with Bangladeshi passports several years back.

Riyadh may send back more Rohingyas, now kept in detention camps in Jeddah, creating more worries for Bangladesh which is already burdened with over a million Rohingya refugees.