U.N. Human Rights Commissioner meets Rohingya refugees in Malaysia

WION
Reuters ,Kuala Lumpur
Oct 05, 2019,

Bachelet visiting Rohingya education centre. Photograph:( Reuters )

The United Nations human rights chief Michelle Bachelet on Friday paid a visit to a school for Rohingya refugees children in Kuala Lumpur during a visit to Malaysia.

The visit was the first by a current U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights to Malaysia.

Bangladesh: Halt Plans to Fence-In Rohingya Refugees

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

September 30, 2019

Barbed Wire, Guard Towers to Deny Freedom of Movement

 Rohingya refugees gather behind a barbed-wire fence in the “no-man’s land” 

border  zone between Myanmar and Bangladesh, April

25, 2018. © 2018 Ye Aung Thu/AFP/Getty Images

(New York) – The Bangladesh government’s plans for barbed wire and guard towers around Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar violate refugees’ rights to freedom of movement, Human Rights Watch said today. Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan announced the plan on September 26, 2019, saying it was specifically ordered by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Senior US official issues strong new warning to Myanmar on Rohingya amid growing concern about refugees' future

abc NEWS
conor finnegan
Sep 27, 2019,

The United States' top official for foreign aid issued a firm and emotional warning Thursday to Myanmar about the lack of progress over how it treats the Rohingya and other ethnic minority groups.

Two years after violent attacks by Myanmar security forces and local militias against the Muslim ethnic minority killed thousands and sent more than 750,000 across the border as refugees, little has changed on the ground in Myanmar's northwest Rakhine state. Critics say it's because the U.S., the United Nations and others have not done enough to pressure the government. 

"They're not on the right path and a democratic journey, and I worry a great deal," Mark Green, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, told ABC News in an interview.

(MORE: One year later, no end in sight for Rohingya crisis as enormous needs remain unmet)

 

Rohingya Refugees Risk Going Back to Another Genocide in Myanmar

WPR 

World Politics Review

Joshua Kurlantzick  

Thursday, Sept. 26, 2019

 

Rohingya refugees at the Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, April 24, 2019 (AP photo). 

Myanmar’s government is pushing for the more than 1 million Rohingya refugees currently in Bangladesh to start returning to the country, in an effort to project an image of peace and reconciliation to the outside world. Yet as grim as the situation is for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, where they live in what is now the world’s largest refugee settlement, their prospects back in Myanmar are even worse.

Bangladesh warns UN officials over Rohingya refugees

World Socialist Web Site
By Rohantha De Silva
26 September 2019

 Bangladeshi Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen has warned United Nations officials that they must support Dhaka’s harsh treatment of Rohingya refugees or leave the country. Momen made the remarks in an interview early this month with Deutsche Welle, Germany’s public broadcaster.

Rohingya refugees caught between a rock and a hard place

TRT WORLD
13 September 2019

An increasingly frustrated Dhaka government and a hostile Myanmar government have pushed Rohingya refugees into a corner with nowhere to go.

It has been two years since a brutal military campaign waged by Myanmar authorities triggered an exodus of at least 700,000 Rohingya Muslims to Bangladesh — an operation that rights groups have branded “ethnic cleansing” or “genocide.”

A UN fact-finding mission has documented major abuses in Rakhine since 2016, including widespread killings and torching of villages, and said its findings warrant prosecution for war crimes and crimes against humanity in a forum such as the International Criminal Court.

Rohingya refugees refuse to return to Myanmar without rights guarantee

The Guardian
Hannah Ellis-Petersen 

Shaikh Azizur Rahman

Wed 21 Aug 2019 

Families chosen for repatriation are too scared to return and fear not being given citizenship

Rohingya children in a refugee camp in Bangladesh. None of the families interviewed about repatriation wanted to return to Myanmar. Photograph: Allison Joyce/Getty Images 

Plans to begin repatriating the thousands of Rohingya Muslims who fled ethnic cleansing in Rahkine state in 2017 look likely to fail once again, with the refugees refusing to go back to Myanmar voluntarily.

Over 3,000 Rohingya were placed on a list of refugees and approved for repatriation as part of a fresh attempt by the governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar to start sending back some of the more than one million refugees living in squalid camps in Cox’s Bazar.

More Than 500,000 Rohingya Refugees Receive Fraud-Proof Identity Cards

VOA

By Lisa Schlein

August 10, 2019 

A Rohingya refugee repairs the roof of his shelter at the Balukhali refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, March 5, 2019.

GENEVA - The U.N. refugee agency reports more than half-a-million Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh have received identity documents that will give them better access to aid.

An estimated 900,000 Rohingya refugees are living in overcrowded, squalid camps in the town of Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh. Most of them fled there two years ago to escape persecution and violence in Myanmar.

Bangladesh registers over half a million Rohingya refugees

bdnews24.com
Senior Correspondent,
bdnews24.com
Published: 09 Aug 2019

File Photo: Rohingyas form long lines to wait for biometric registration at the Kutupalong refugee camp. Photo: mostafigur rahman

More than half a million Rohingya refugees have received identity documents, most for the first time, until Wednesday.

The registration process is being carried out by the Bangladesh authorities with the support of the UN refugee agency, UNHCR.

Rohingya refugees' political group cries out for equal rights as Myanmar citizens

The Korean Times
By Jung Da-min
Posted : 2019-05-05 

Mohib Ullah, left, a leader of Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights (ARSPH), speaks through a megaphone during an evening gathering between ARSPH members and a group of foreign journalists in Kutupalong camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, April 16. Courtesy of W-TIMES

COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh ― The Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights (ARSPH) is a political awakening for Rohingya refugees who fled the "systematic persecution from birth to death" of the Myanmar government.

Lawyer's Sincere Move Yields Good Results For Rohingya Children.

Bernama.com

25/04/2019
By Nurhanani binti Basri & Noraizura Ahmad

KUALA LUMPUR (Bernama) -- In the beginning, neither the teacher nor pupil could comprehend each other but now, a year later, some 100 children of Rohingya refugees in Seri Kembangan, Selangor, have learnt to speak decent Bahasa Malaysia.

Facing Myanmar’s brutal persecution, Rohingya refugees still can’t return home.

PBSO

NEWS
HOUR

Apr 24, 2019 

Transcript

The Rohingya people of Myanmar have long been persecuted by their government, primarily for their Muslim faith amid a Buddhist majority. A million of them have fled the violence to camps in neighboring Bangladesh, which is tiring of their presence. Amna Nawaz talks to Refugees International's Dan Sullivan about genocide and the hostile conditions in Myanmar preventing Rohingya from returning home.

Rohingya refugees in Cox's Bazar resist plan to be relocated to island.

Kyodo News⁺

23rd April, 2019
By Zahiduzzaman Faruque,

DHAKA - Bangladesh is facing a dilemma over the planned transfer of thousands of Rohingya Muslims crowded into makeshift camps along the country's border with Myanmar to an uninhabited island in the Bay of Bengal.

To ease social, economic, environmental and internal security hazards, the government plans to relocate nearly 100,000 Rohingya refugees from the camps in Cox's Bazar to Bhasan Char, which is about 1 hour by motor boat from the nearest shore.

UN body denies Rohingya info, Telangana cops turn to court to book it.

THE TIMES OF INDIA
Apr 20, 2019,

HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad police’s special investigation team (SIT) has filed a petition in a city criminal court against the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for not following its orders in a probe against Rohingya refugees. The petition has so far neither been admitted nor disposed of by the 12th additional court of metropolitan magistrate at Nampally. 

New training project launched for women in Bangladesh refugee communities

Ekklesia

By agency reporter

APRIL 17, 2019

A new training project in southeast Bangladesh to promote self-reliance among women in communities hosting refugees, as well as among Rohingya refugee women, has become operational in Cox’s Bazar. The project is potentially a game-changer for women in these communities. It is being supported by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.

UNHCR has teamed up with the Ayesha Abed Foundation (AAF) – the humanitarian arm of our NGO partner BRAC – to support a programme designed to provide income opportunities by developing skills in craft production.

CJ Werleman Renewed campaign to wipe out surviving Rohingya will be the most savage yet

TheNewArab 
16th April 2019

Rohingya refugees in a temporary settlement in 'no man's land' between Myanmar and Bangladesh [Getty]

Comment: There's growing evidence the 

military junta in Myanmar is using its 

ground offensive against separatists as 

a pretext to 'clean out,' the remaining Rohingya,

writes CJ Werleman.

Last week, a Myanmar military helicopter attacked a Rohingya Muslim village in Rakhine state, leaving as many 30 dead and dozens more injured. 

Alarming level of food insecurity for locals.

The Daily Star

Sunday, April 7, 2019

Rohingya influx affecting poor communities in Cox's Bazar

Rohingya refugees queue for aid in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. PHOTO: REUTERS/CATHAL MCNAUGHTON

According to a global report titled “2019 Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC)”, the locals in Cox's Bazar are facing an uphill struggle due to the influx of Rohingya refugees. The poor have lost access to farmlands, fishing grounds and forest resources and many have been forced to opt to work as day labourers. But given the availability of cheap labour from the refugee camps, wage rates have also plummeted and demand for food has pushed up prices. The net result of all these factors is one where locals now have less access to basic services and where staples cost more than what they can afford.

Rohingya in Jammu region facing deteriorating living conditions.

PRESSTV

Sat Mar 30, 2019
Shahana Butt
Press TV, Indian Administered Kashmir

Rohingya refugees residing in Jammu region of Kashmir are facing deteriorating living conditions over the past ten years. This came after an anti-Rohingya wave hit the Hindu majority region last year.

SOURCE:

https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/03/29/592137/Rohingya in Jammu region facing deteriorating living conditions

Report: Rohingya Refugees Suffered Crimes Against Humanity in Massive Human Trafficking Scheme.

RFA
Eugene Whong
2019-03-27

Malaysian forensic team members inspect remains found in an unmarked grave outside Wang Kelian, Malaysia, near the border with Thailand, May 26, 2015.

A human trafficking syndicate committed crimes against humanity between 2012 and 2015 against Rohingya and Bangladeshi refugees trying to flee to Malaysia and Thailand, two Southeast Asia-based human rights groups said in a report on Wednesday.

In the joint 121-page work titled “Sold Like Fish,” the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (SUHAKAM) and the Bangkok-based Fortify Rights provides accounts of survivors who were deceived by the traffickers, believing they were boarding boats to seek refuge abroad.

‘I Am Doing This for Every Place Where Rape Is a Weapon of War.’ Meet the Woman Documenting Sexual Violence Against Myanmar's Rohingya.

TIME
27th March 2019 
BY LAIGNEE BARRON 

Razia Sultana, a Rohingya lawyer and advocate, speaks during a press conference in Ottawa, Canada on Sept. 20, 2018.  Sean Kilpatrick—AP

When Rohingya refugees began fleeing into Bangladesh in 2016 and 2017, lawyer and activist Razia Sultana found herself on the frontline of a sexual violence epidemic.

The Myanmar military, in its scorched-earth campaign against the Muslim minority, laid waste to entire villages, carried out massacres and lined up women to be raped, according to U.N. investigators, who have called for the alleged crimes to be prosecuted as genocide. As the exodus swelled to more than 770,000, Razia Sultana got to work documenting the violence.