Arif Ismael ran an after-school tutoring program at his home before the mobs arrived to burn it down.
Arif lived with his family in Sittwe, the capital of Myanmar’s Rakhine State, where he taught English, the Myanmar language, and economics. His program for junior high school students had been running well for the past year, despite government limitations imposed on him as a Rohingya Muslim, Rakhine’s largest ethnic minority. For the past 40 years, Rakhine’s more than one million Rohingya had been denied higher education, proper medical care, and citizenship in the country they had lived in for generations.
In the camps in Cox's Bazar district. Photo: SRK, Remo Nägeli
A large number of displaced persons sought refuge in Bangladesh in 2017 from the violence in Myanmar. The Swiss Red Cross (SRC) has been active in Bangladesh for almost 50 years and has also been in Cox’s Bazar since 2017. In this interview, Benedikt Kaelin, Program Officer for Bangladesh at the SRC, talks about the lives of people in the camps and assesses how they can move forward.
(Bangkok) – The Myanmar government should stop obstructing international efforts to investigate widespread crimes committed against Rohingya Muslims, Human Rights Watch said today. Donors and concerned governments should press Myanmar to protect their basic rights, facilitate international justice for victims, and ensure that any returns of Rohingya refugees are voluntary, safe, and dignified.