Uncertainty, despair grip Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh

UCA News
Updated: August 30, 2024 

Most of the estimated 1 million Rohingya refugees are frustrated with no visible sign of repatriation and poor camp life 

This photo taken on May 24 shows Rohingya refugees walking down a path at a refugee camp in Ukhia in Bangladesh's southeastern Cox's Bazar district. (Photo: AFP)

Sitting in his tiny one-room home in the congested Shalbagan refugee camp in Teknaf of Cox’s Bazar on a hot and humid monsoon day, Abu Sufian laments the loss of a relatively happy life in Myanmar's Rakhine state seven years ago.

1,250 more Rohingya refugees taken to Bhasan Char

Dhaka Tribune
Tribune Desk
Publish : 01 Mar 2024, 

A bird’s eye view of Rohingya camps in Bhasan Char. Photo: Dhaka Tribune

Another 1,250 Rohingyas have left for Noakhali's Bhasanchar from Teknaf and Ukhiya Rohingya camps in Cox's Bazar.

The Rohingyas willing to go to Bhasanchar voluntarily were taken to Ukhiya Degree College grounds in Cox's Bazar by bus from various shelter camps around 11:30pm on Thursday night.

Rohingya refugees in Indonesia still hope for a better future

Al Jazeera
By Jessica Washington
Published On 26 Jan 202426 Jan 2024

On the beach and in a car park, Rohingya refugees are taking shelter wherever they can amid a hostile reception in Aceh.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees says more than 70 percent of the Rohingya who have arrived in Indonesia in recent months are women and children. [Jessica Washington/Al Jazeera]

Pidie, Indonesia – In December, Abdul Karim boarded a wooden boat from Bangladesh with his wife and two sons, with aspirations for a better life for the whole family.

ဘင်္ဂလားဒေ့ရှ်- ရိုဟင်ဂျာဒုက္ခသည်တွေရဲ့ အခြေအနေ သတင်းအချက်အလက် (2001 )

 ဘင်္ဂလားဒေ့ရှ်- ရိုဟင်ဂျာဒုက္ခသည်တွေရဲ့ အခြေအနေ သတင်းအချက်အလက်

ထုတ်ဝေသူ United States Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services
စာရေးသူ အရင်းအမြစ်သတင်းအချက်အလက်စင်တာ
ထုတ်ဝေသည့်နေ့စွဲ ၂၈ မတ်လ ၂၀၀၁
ကိုးကားချက်/စာရွက်စာတမ်းသင်္ကေတ BGD01001.ZCH

ရှင်းလင်းချက် ဤသည်မှာ UNHCR ထုတ်ပြန်ချက်မဟုတ်ပါ။ UNHCR သည် ၎င်း၏အကြောင်းအရာအတွက် တာဝန်မရှိသလို၊ ၎င်း၏အကြောင်းအရာကို ထောက်ခံရန်လည်း မလိုအပ်ပါ။ ဖော်ပြထားသော အမြင်များသည် စာရေးဆရာ သို့မဟုတ် ထုတ်ဝေသူ၏ တစ်ခုတည်းသာဖြစ်ပြီး UNHCR၊ ကုလသမဂ္ဂ သို့မဟုတ် ၎င်း၏အဖွဲ့ဝင်နိုင်ငံများမှ ရောင်ပြန်ဟပ်ခြင်းမရှိပါ။

မေးမြန်းချက်-

ဘင်္ဂလားဒေ့ရှ်နိုင်ငံရှိ ရိုဟင်ဂျာဒုက္ခသည်များ၏ အခြေအနေကို ကျေးဇူးပြု၍ တင်ပြပါ။

တုံ့ပြန်မှု-

နောက်ခံသမိုင်း

[အမေရိကန်နိုင်ငံခြားရေးဌာန၏ ကျင့်ထုံးနှင့်အညီ၊ အရင်းအမြစ်သတင်းအချက်အလတ်ဌာနသည် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံကို “မြန်မာ” ဟူသော အသုံးအနှုန်းကို  ၁၉၈၉ ခုနှစ်တွင် မြန်မာအစိုးရက “ပြည်ထောင်စု မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ” ဟု အ မည် ပြောင်းခဲ့သော်လည်း၊၁၉၉၁ ခုနှစ် ဒီဇင်ဘာလမှ ၁၉၉၂ ခုနှစ် မတ်လအထိ မြန်မာ ရိုဟင်ဂျာ ၂၁၀,၀၀၀ နှင့် ၂၅၀,၀၀၀ အကြား မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ အနောက်ဘက် ရခိုင်ပြည်နယ်မှ အိမ်နီ းချင်း ဘင်္ဂလားဒေ့ရှ် နိုင်ငံသို့ ထွက်ပြေးခဲ့သည်။ နောက်ပိုင်းတွင် UNHCR မှ ဒုက္ခသည်အဖြစ် သတ်မှတ်ခြင်းခံရသော ရိုဟင်ဂျာများသည် မုဒိမ်းမှု၊ ညှဉ် းပန်းနှိပ်စက်မှု၊ အကျဉ်းချုပ် သတ်ဖြတ်မှု၊ နေအိမ်နှင့် ပိုင်ဆိုင်မှုများကို သိမ်းဆည်းကာ ဖျက်ဆီးမှု၊ ဗလီများ ဖျက်ဆီးမှု၊ ကိုယ်ထိလက်ရောက် စော်ကားမှု၊ ဘာသာရေး ညှဉ်းပန်းနှိပ် စက်မှုနှင့် မြန်မာစစ်တပ်၏ အတင်း အ ဓမ္မ လုပ်အားပေးခိုင်းစေမှုတို့ကို တောင်းဆိုခဲ့သည်။ ၎င်းတို့၏ ကျယ်ပြန့် သော လူ့အခွင့်အရေးချိုးဖောက်မှုများဆိုင်ရာ အစီရင်ခံစာများကို Amnesty International အချက်အလက်ရှာဖွေရေးအဖွဲ့က ဘင်္ဂလားဒေ့ရှ်နိုင်ငံရှိ ဒုက္ခသည်များကို တွေ့ဆုံမေးမြန်းရန် စေလွှတ်ခဲ့သည် (Refuge Dec. 2000၊ 39)။

Bangladesh: IRC warns that over 850,000 Rohingya refugees are at risk if Cyclone Mocha reaches Cox’s Bazar

 

                                          Press Release

Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, May 12, 2023 — The International Rescue Committee (IRC) warns that Cyclone Mocha is set to strike Cox's Bazar refugee camp, home to over one million Rohingya refugees.

The cyclone's expected landfall this weekend could cause severe damage. Still reeling from a devastating fire in March that destroyed more than 2,600 shelters and critical infrastructure, over 850,000 refugees risk losing their homes and livelihoods. Strong wind, heavy rains, and subsequent flash floods and mudslides could destroy shelters, community centers, and health clinics, depriving thousands of essential services and humanitarian aid. Host communities, including Teknaf, Kutubdia, Saint Martin's Island, and nearby areas, may also be heavily affected.

In preparation, more than 3,000 Rohingya refugees have been trained to respond to flooding and mudslides. Meanwhile, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) is scaling up its emergency response in Cox's Bazar. Three mobile medical teams will be deployed to remote areas in the camps and communities to provide emergency medical treatment. Additionally, a Mobile Protection Unit designed for emergency settings will offer protection services to vulnerable groups such as women, girls, the elderly, and those with disabilities.

Rohingya sceptical of Myanmar refugee return overture

FRANCH 24

22/03/2023 

Sprawling refugee camps in Bangladesh are home to around a million Rohingya © Munir uz Zaman / AFP/File

Cox's Bazar (Bangladesh) (AFP) – Rohingya refugees said they doubted Myanmar was offering a genuine return to their homeland, after Wednesday's conclusion of an official visit to Bangladesh ostensibly aimed at jumpstarting a stalled repatriation agreement.

A delegation of 17 officials from Myanmar's military regime met with around 480 refugees over the past week in a process brokered by China and partly facilitated by the United Nations.

Chollet: Hopeful about future relations with Bangladesh

DT
UNB
February 15, 2023 

                                                                                                                  UNB

Counselor of the US Department of State, Derek Chollet, on Wednesday said they remain “hopeful” about future relations with Bangladesh – building on the strong partnership that has developed over 51 years.

“We are hopeful for the future. 51 years – very strong partnership. We are looking forward to the next 51 years and beyond. We have many shared challenges but we have many common opportunities that we have talked about today,” Chollet told reporters after his meeting with Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

‘Waiting for us to die’: Indonesia’s Rohingya refugees left in legal limbo for years

South China Morning Post

Eko Rusdianto  and Aisyah Llewellyn
Medan,Makassar
19 Jun, 2021

• Makassar, in Indonesia’s South Sulawesi province, is home to thousands of refugees and asylum seekers – but legally, all are just ‘transiting’
• Dwindling resettlement quotas in third countries mean some have been waiting to leave for a decade or more, as they battle with illness and depression

Reyas Alam visit the grave of Haji Mohd Shiraj, a Rohingya refugee who died in Makassar while waiting to be resettled. Photo: Eko Rusdianto

The number of people fleeing wars, violence, persecution and human rights violations rose for the ninth year in 2020 despite the pandemic, according to the United Nations’ refugee agency. About 20.7 million people are considered refugees under the UNHCR’s mandate. On World Refugee Day, This Week in Asia looks at the plight of Rohingya communities seeking temporary refuge in Indonesia and India.

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

Why we should be kinder to Rohingya refugees — Liew Chin Tong

malay mail
Monday, 14 Jun 2021

JUNE 14 — I read with distress and alarm the heightened publicity attacks against the Rohingya and other migrants by Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainuddin and Immigration Director-General Datuk Khairul Dzaimee Daud.

Distress because the Rohingya as a group have been subjected to persecution and suffered genocide at the hands of the Myanmar military, and alarm because of the vitriol against a defenceless people.

In August 2017, more than 742,000 Rohingya fled Bangladesh seeking refuge from the Myanmarese regime’s pogrom. Many perished along the way. The refugees who made it to Bangladesh have been sheltered mainly in the camps in Cox’s Bazar and Teknaf. With this massive influx of refugees adding to an older generation of Rohingya who had fled Myanmar into Bangladesh decades earlier, the numbers soon mushroomed to more than a million Rohingya refugees, squeezed into a crowded and underdeveloped border region of Bangladesh.

Dozens of Rohingya refugees land off Aceh coast

THE JAKARTA POST

AFP
Pulau Idaman, Aceh 

 Fri, June 4, 2021

A group of Rohingya refugees gather on a beach after arriving at Pulau Idaman, a small island off the coast of East Aceh in northern Sumatra on June 4, 2021. (AFP/Cekmad)

A boat filled with dozens of Rohingya, mostly women and children, landed on an island off Aceh coast early Friday, according to an AFP reporter and the UN refugee agency.

It is the latest wave of arrivals by the persecuted minority in Muslim-majority Indonesia, after often perilous, months-long sea journeys from cramped refugee camps in Bangladesh -- next to their native Myanmar.

The Rohingya refugees trapped on a remote island miles from land

B B C

BBC World Service

Moazzem Hossain and Swaminathan Natarajan

When Dilara set off from the Bangladeshi coast, she dreamed of a new life in Malaysia.

But she and hundreds of others who had crammed into the boat ended up being rescued, having spent days floating at sea, after being turned away at the border.

Yet they were not returned to the mainland and the families they had left behind.

Instead, their rescuers left the group on an island created out of silt in the middle of the Bay of Bengal, with no hope of escape.

Islamic Zakat donations reached millions of refugees in 2020

TRT WORLD
02 April 2021

Compared to four years ago, Zakat funds increased in record numbers last year, helping more than two million refugees across the world, according to UNHCR.

The latest Islamic Philanthropy report of the UNHCR has shown that Islamic Zakat donations in 2020 saw a big increase compared to previous years, amounting to $61.5 million, reaching more than two million displaced people across the world.

Compared to the period of 2016-2018, when Islamic donations had reached more than 34,000 people, last year, both Zakat and Sadaqah, along with Sadaqah Jariyah, which are other forms of religious donations, helped nearly 2.1 million people in total.

Thailand braces for refugees as thousands flee Myanmar airstrikes

THE HILL

JUSTINE COLEMAN - 

03/29/21

Thailand is bracing itself for thousands of refugees who are fleeing Myanmar after its military launched several airstrikes near its border in recent days, further escalating the military crackdown after the coup.

Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha said on Monday that his government is getting ready for a potential flood of refugees amid the recent strike attacks, The Associated Press reported.

“We don’t want to have mass migration into our territory, but we will consider human rights, too,” Prayut said.

A Refugees Journey from Myanmar Leaving My Homeland

A Refugees Journey from Mya... by Malik Farhan Azam

South Korean envoy visits Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar

Prothomalo
Diplomatic Correspondent

Dhaka
19 Feb 2021,

South Korean envoy visits Rohingya camps in Cox’s BazarCourtesy

South Korean ambassador in Dhaka Lee Jang-keun visited the Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar. He met representatives of the UN agencies, international donor organisations and the local administration in Cox’s Bazar and discussed how to step up collaboration to resolve the Rohingya crisis.

Lee Jang-keun told Prothom Alo on Thursday, “This is the first time I visited Cox’s Bazar to see the Rohingya crisis since I came to Dhaka in July last year. I got an overall idea on the crisis through this visit.”

Rohingya refugees on an island of no return

ASIA TIMES

by Bertil Lintner
December 21, 2020 

Bangladesh is moving Rohingya refugees to an isolated island amid fears militant Islamic groups are penetrating border camps

Rohingya refugees perform prayers as they attend a ceremony organized to remember the first anniversary of a military crackdown that prompted a massive exodus of people from Myanmar to Bangladesh, at the Kutupalong refugee camp in Ukhia on August 25, 2018. Photo: AFP / Dibyangshu Sarkar

CHIANG MAI – They were told that they would be the first to be repatriated to Myanmar.

But when the first lot of 1,642 Rohingya Muslim refugees arrived on Bangladesh’s Bhasan Char island on December 3, they were herded into a huge, newly built settlement consisting of concrete living quarters, two hospitals, clinics, mosques, teaching centers, cyclone shelters, playgrounds and a police station.

Located 34 kilometers from the mainland, or a three-hour journey by boat, the island and what has been constructed there show that the Bangladeshi authorities are accepting the fact that they are stuck with a permanent refugee population. None of the estimated one million Rohingyas in Bangladesh are going back to Myanmar in the foreseeable future, if at all.

‘R’ is for Rohingya: Sesame Street Creates New Muppets for Refugees

The New York Times 

By Hannah Beech
Dec. 19, 2020

A child in a Rohingya refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh and Grover the Muppet in 2018.Credit...Ryan Donnell/Sesame Workshop

BANGKOK — Six-year-old twins Noor and Aziz live in the largest refugee camp in the world. They are Rohingya Muslims who escaped ethnic cleansing in their native Myanmar for refuge in neighboring Bangladesh. They are also Muppets.

On Thursday, Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit that runs the early education TV show “Sesame Street” and operates in more than 150 countries, unveiled Aziz and Noor as the latest Muppets in their cast of characters.

Move of Rohingya Refugees Poses Environmental and Human Rights Concerns

EcoWatch

Tina Gerhardt
Dec. 18, 2020

Rohingya refugees board a Bangladesh Navy ship to be transported to the island of Bhashan Char in Chittagong on December 4, 2020. AFP / Getty Images

On December 4, about 1,600 Rohingya traveled across the Bay of Bengal in seven navy boats from Chattogram to Bhasan Char. Bangladesh plans to move 100,000 families to the island.

The move poses serious concerns, both with regard to the environment and human rights.

Located about 18.6 miles (30 km) from the mainland, Bhasan Char is low-lying and prone to flooding. Therefore, it has been uninhabited. The island only formed in the past 20 years as a result of silt buildup. Bhasan Char rests at the confluence of three large rivers, the Brahmaputra, the Ganges and the Meghna River, which collectively bring rich deposits of silt to the bay.

Rohingya refugees are being displaced, again

Aljazeera

18 Dec 2020

Rohingya are seen inside a tent as they wait to get on board a ship as they move to Bhasan Char island in Chattogram, Bangladesh, December 4, 2020 [File: Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters]

Bangladesh has relocated more than 1,700 Rohingya refugees from crowded camps in the country’s southeast to Bhasan Char, an island prone to flooding, and it intends to relocate thousands more.