US To Co-Host Virtual Donor Conference For Rohingya Refugees - State Dept.

UrduPoint
Wed 21st October 2020

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st October, 2020) The United States will co-host a virtual donor conference on Thursday to support the Rohingya refugees, the US State Department announced in a release on Tuesday.

"Deputy Secretary of State Stephen E.

Biegun will co-host a virtual donor conference together with the United Kingdom, the European Union, and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees on October 22, 2020," the release said.

Biegun will be joined by US Agency for International Development (USAID) Acting Administrator John Barsa, the release added.

In August, the State Department marked the third anniversary of Myanmar's military campaign that drove some 700,000 Rohingya Muslims into exile in Bangladesh with a fresh demand for accountability and a safe return of the refugees.

Link : Here

IOM, UK Emergency Medical Team Continue COVID-19 Health Support for Refugees, Locals in Cox’s Bazar

IOM UN Migration
Date:10/13/20

Cox’s Bazar – From the outset of the COVID-19 health crisis in Bangladesh, humanitarian agencies in Cox's Bazar have worked around the clock to prepare to effectively respond to the outbreak in the district, which hosts one of the largest refugee settlements in the world.

Key to this enormous effort includes enhancing existing partnerships and seeking new collaborative opportunities to address the lack of technical expertise and strained human resources in an already complex refugee crisis.

Rohingya Refugees, Workers Raise Funds to Help Ethnic Rakhines Displaced by War

RADIO FREE ASIA

2020-10-12 

Rohingya refugees in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, are shown raising funds for ethnic Rakhine displaced by fighting in Myanmar, Sept. 28, 2020.
Photo provided by citizen journalist

Rohingya Muslims both in refugee camps in Bangladesh and in cities in Myanmar are raising humanitarian relief funds for Buddhist Rakhine people displaced by fighting in their northern Myanmar state, easing traditional hostility between the two ethnic groups, sources say.

Collected funds are going to provide refugees with shelter and food amid a surge of coronavirus infections in Rakhine state, where fighting between government troops and the ethnic Arakan Army (AA) has killed nearly 300 civilians and driven more than 220,000 from their homes since late 2018.

Bangladesh: Protesting Rohingya Refugees Beaten

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

October 1, 2020

Authorities Prepare to Relocate Thousands to Dangerous Island

A man walks past buildings on Bhasan Char, or floating island, in the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh on December 19, 2019. © 2019 AP Photo/Saleh Noman

(New York) – Bangladesh authorities beat refugees protesting their detention on Bhasan Char Island with sticks and tree branches, Human Rights Watch said today. Naval officers allegedly beat the refugees, including children, in retribution for their hunger strike beginning on September 21, 2020 to demand reunification with their families in the Cox’s Bazar refugee camps.

Rohingya refugee landing in Aceh dies of respiratory illness

THE JAKARTAPOST
News Desk
The Jakarta Post
Jakarta / Thu, September 10, 2020

Ninety-four Rohingya refugees, comprising 15 men, 49 women and 30 children, were found stranded on a boat 4 miles from the coast of Seunuddon in North Aceh regency, Aceh, on June 24. (Antara/Nova Wahyudi)

Midshalimah, 21, a Rohingya refugee who was among hundreds who arrived in Aceh early on Monday, has reportedly died from some form of respiratory illness.

Lhokseumawe city public relations head Marzuki said on Wednesday that Midshalimah had complained of shortness of breath upon landing at Ujong Blang Beach in Lhokseumawe just after midnight.

For the Last Three Years, More Than a Million Rohingya Muslims Have Been Stuck in Bangladesh

Vice 
by Faisal Mahmud

Refugees say that they are trapped on a bare hillside in a foreign country with no hope 

Rohingya refugees stand in the waters of a canal at a refugee camp near Ukhia, Bangladesh. August 25 marked three years since around a million Rohingyas escaped from Myanmar. Photo courtesy of Munir Uz zaman / AFP

It’s been three years, but the memory still haunts Yasmin in her dreams.

The 22-year-old Rohingya woman now resides in the sprawling Kutupalong refugee camp in Southern Bangladesh. Making her way there in 2017 was an arduous journey; she had slogged through the monsoon-drenched jungles and paddy fields of Western Myanmar in the dark for four days. She was fleeing a pogrom.

Rohingya people arrested at sea shunted back to Myanmar camps

THE Star
Saturday, 05 Sep 2020

In this file photo taken on October 03, 2019 people walk in Kyauktalone camp in Kyaukphyu, Rakhine state, where Muslim residents have been forced to live for seven years after the inter-communal unrest tore apart the town. Myanmar has returned dozens of Rohingya to camps in conflict-wracked Rakhine state, officials said Thursday, after arresting them at sea as they tried to flee what rights groups brand as "apartheid" conditions. - AFP 

YANGON, Sept 5 (AFP): Myanmar has returned dozens of Rohingya to camps in conflict-wracked Rakhine state, officials have announced, after arresting them at sea as they tried to flee what rights groups brand as "apartheid" conditions.

A group of 42 Rohingya Muslims -- including two children -- was detained last Thursday (Sept 3) offshore of Bogale in Ayeyarwady region, local police told AFP.

UAE announces aid for a million Rohingya refugees in flood-hit Bangladesh

  MENAFN

Date -8/27/2020 

(MENAFN - Khaleej Times) The United Arab Emirates has announced assistance to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR, to support it in delivering an aid shipment to Cox''s Bazar in Bangladesh, following recent floods that struck a camp housing more than a million Rohingya refugees.

Rohingya refugees becoming Palestinians of Asia

ASIA TIMES
by Bertil Lintner
August 26, 2020

Three years after Myanmar drove hundreds of thousands of Rohingya into Bangladesh they are no closer to repatriation 

A file photo of Rohingya refugees protesting against a disputed repatriation program at the Unchiprang refugee camp near Teknaf, Bangladesh. Photo: AFP/ Dibyangshu Sarkar

BANGKOK – Three years after images of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees streaming across Myanmar’s western border into Bangladesh shook the world, expectations that they will ever be repatriated are fading fast.

UN Court Calls on Myanmar to Settle The Case of The Rohingya Refugees at Once

albawaba
August 26th, 2020

Myanmar's State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi attends a meeting of the Union Peace Dialogue during the 4th Union Peace Conference (21st Century Panglong) at the Myanmar International Convention Center in Naypyidaw on August 20, 2020. THET AUNG / AFP 

Highlights

The ICJ case that the Gambia has brought can and should be part of a broader political strategy aimed at creating the changes that are needed in Myanmar to make it possible for the Rohingya to return to Rakhine and to live safe and dignified lives

Two dozen Rohingya refugees die after jumping from boat near Thailand

MALAYSIA SUN
Voice of America
27 Jul 2020,

• Malaysian officials say 24 Rohingya migrants are feared drowned off a Malaysian resort island near Thailand.
• Malaysian authorities launched a search and rescue operation on Sunday for the Rohingya refugees who went missing after jumping into the water from a boat and attempting to swim to the ...
• Malaysia's coastguard said 25 people had tried to swim to shore late Saturday, but only one of them, identified as Nor Hossain, 27, made it to the island.

UNHCR grants refugee status to 99 Rohingya migrants in Aceh

ANTARA NEWS
23rd July 2020

Rohingya refugees in Aceh. ANTARA PHOTO/Rahmad/wsj

The UNHCR officials have completed the registration of the 99 Rohingya migrants Jakarta (ANTARA) - The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)-Indonesia Office officially granted refugee status to 99 Rohingya migrants that three Acehnese fishermen had rescued on humanitarian grounds in June, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi stated.

"The UNHCR officials have completed the registration of the 99 Rohingya migrants," Marsudi told journalists at a virtual press conference in Jakarta on Thursday.

What Myanmar Is and Is Not Doing to Protect Rohingyas from Genocide

JUST SECURITY
Param-Preet Singh
July 23, 2020

(Editors Note: This article is part of a special Just Security forum on the ongoing Gambia v. Myanmar litigation at the International Court of Justice and ways forward.)


 In August 2017, the desperate plight of Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims grabbed headlines when the military’s brutal campaign of murder, rape and other abuses forced more than 740,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh. In 2019, the United Nations-backed Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar warned that the 600,000 Rohingya remaining in Myanmar’s Rakhine state faced a greater than ever threat of genocide because of the government’s attempts to “erase their identity and remove them from the country.”

Malaysia: Stop Treating Rohingya Refugees as Criminals

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

July 22, 2020

Jailing, Caning Refugees Violates International Law 

A boat carries Rohingya refugees off the coast of Langkawi, Malaysia, April 5, 2020. Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency handout via AP

(Bangkok) – Malaysian authorities should stop prosecuting Rohingya refugees for illegal entry and ensure that they are protected in accordance with international law, Human Rights Watch said today.

At least 40 ethnic Rohingya who were picked up from a boat that arrived in Malaysian waters more than three months ago have been sentenced to seven months in prison. Fourteen children from the boat were sent to “shelters” and may also face criminal charges. Twenty-seven of the thirty-one men convicted also face three strokes of the cane – a brutal punishment that constitutes torture under international human rights law. A court will hear their application to set aside the caning sentence on July 22.

Malaysian court to hear bid to set aside caning for Rohingya refugees

REUTERS
Rozanna Latiff
July 21, 2020

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - A Malaysian court on Wednesday will hear a bid to set aside caning sentences handed down to 27 Rohingya Muslim refugees from Myanmar, lawyers said, a punishment that rights groups have decried as vicious and tantamount to torture.

Muslim-majority Malaysia has long been a favoured destination for Rohingya seeking a better life after escaping a 2017 military crackdown in Myanmar and, more recently, refugee camps in Bangladesh.

But Malaysia, which does not recognise refugee status, has recently turned away boats and detained hundreds of Rohingya, saying it can not take in more migrants because of a struggling economy as a result of the novel coronavirus.

Malaysia: Stop plans to cane Rohingya refugees and release those already imprisoned

 

20 July 2020,

Asia and The Pacific  Refugees 

 

The Malaysian authorities must immediately abandon plans to whip at least 20 Rohingya men who are being punished simply for trying to seek safety. The government should release all other jailed Rohingya refugees – including women and children – who have been unlawfully singled out, convicted and imprisoned for alleged “immigration offences,” which are contrary to international law, Amnesty International said today.

PM assures Liew on Rohingya refugees

Daily Express
Wednesday, July 15, 2020
By: NST

Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia will not send any illegal immigrant who arrived here via boat back out to sea – including the 300 Rohingya refugees who entered the country’s waters last June. Instead, Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the government will look for an appropriate solution for their situation. “The government had never planned on sending the Rohingya illegal immigrants back out to the open sea,” he said when giving a parliamentary reply.

Refugees: Humanity approach is most appropriate way

NEW

STRAITSTIMES

July 14, 2020

File Photo: In this picture taken on May 2, 2020, Rohingya refugees stranded at sea are seen on a boat near the coast of Cox's Bazar. - Dozens of Rohingya refugees believed to have come from two boats stranded at sea for weeks as they tried to reach Malaysia landed on the Bangladesh coast on May 2, Rohingya community leaders said. (Photo by STR / AFP) 

Letters: Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin's statement that Malaysia will not send refugees who come by boats back to the sea is most welcome.

Applying a humanitarian approach is appropriate while seeking for a better solution depending on the situation.

Malaysia needs to act with caution so as not to be seen as violating international law, what more as an Islamic country that should act in accordance with Islamic principles.

1.1 million Rohingya refugee is now out of thinking amid the pandemic

moderndiplomacy
Mohammad Kepayet
July 15, 2020

Rohingya refugees fleeing conflict and persecution in Myanmar (file photo). IOM/Mohammed

Next August will be the third anniversary of the Rohingya genocide and the forcible exile. Bangladesh has given shelter to Rohingyas who fled Myanmar in 2017. Asia never saw that amount of refuge at the same time after the liberation war of Bangladesh. Rohingya repatriation has been discussed at various times. Some discussions are in process. But suddenly the coronavirus invades the repatriation debate. So the Rohingya repatriation process is coming to a halt. From the world media to the UN and all the powerful countries are now busy dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic.

Rohingya refugee claims child barred from attending PAS kindergarten due to Covid-19

malaymail

Wednesday, 01 Jul 2020 

BY YISWAREE PALANSAMY

General view of a Rohingya settlement in Bandar Baru Sentul, Kuala Lumpur April 24, 2020. — Picture Hari Anggara

KUALA LUMPUR, July 1 — A Rohingya father has claimed today that his six-year-old child has been barred from attending a kindergarten which reopened today, allegedly due to an internal policy against foreigners who are deemed at high risk of contracting Covid-19.

The father said he was informed of the ban by one of the teachers in the PASTI Islamic kindergarten that is managed by the Youth wing of Islamist party PAS, after he enquired about its reopening.