UN Urges Bangladesh to Delay Rohingya Refugee Island Transfers

THE I DIPLOMAT
By Sebastian Strangio
April 20, 2021

The controversial island relocation plan points to the challenges facing the resolution of the refugee crisis in southeastern Bangladesh.

The United Nations refugee agency is urging Bangladesh to slow down its relocation of Rohingya refugees to an island in the Bay of Bengal until measures to protect residents from storms and flooding are fully in place, BenarNews reported on Friday.

Since December, the government has moved a total of 18,304 Rohingya from the crowded refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar district, close to the border with Myanmar, to Bhasan Char, an island lying some 34 kilometers offshore.

According to the report, a team from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) visited the Bhasan Char in mid-March and acknowledged that the government had made “extensive investments” in infrastructure and safeguards on the flood-prone island, but said further improvements were necessary

WFP Bangladesh | Rohingya Refugee Response Situation Report #48 - March 2021

Situation Report
Source း WFP
19 Apr 2021
Link : Here

Rohingya Refugee Camps Are Being Set On Fire

VICE

By Jaishree Kumar

ROHINGYA REFUGEES SEARCH FOR VALUABLES AMID THE DEBRIS DAYS AFTER A FIRE BURNT THEIR HOME AT A REFUGEE CAMP IN COX'S BAZAR ON MARCH 25, 2021.

PHOTO: MUNIR UZ ZAMAN / AFP

Several small fires have engulfed dozens of make-shift homes in Rohingya refugee camps in India and Bangladesh in the last two weeks and it is unclear who is causing them.

These incidents follow a large fire that broke out on March 22 in Bangladesh at Cox’s Bazar. The fire ravaged through 10,000 make-shift homes, killing at least 15 people and displacing 45,000. Investigations into the cause of that fire are still underway. The UN allocated $14 million dollars to help rehabilitate the refugees left homeless by the fire in the world’s largest refugee camp.

'You Always Keep Worrying': Rohingya Refugee In Milwaukee Says About His Family In Myanmar

WUWM ( nrp)

By SIMONE CAZARES & JACK HURBANIS • 

MAR 1, 2021

Anuwar Kasim and his three children in their Milwaukee home.

EMILY FILES / WUWM

WUWM's Simone Cazares speaks with Anuwar Kasim, the president of the Burmese Rohingya Community in Wisconsin about the coup in Myanmar.

On Feb 1., the democratically-elected government of Myanmar was taken over in a military coup. The southeastern Asian country, also known as Burma, has dealt with political instability since 1948, when it declared independence from British rule.

This is the same military which for decades has been persecuting a Muslim ethnic minority in the country who call themselves Rohingya. Since the 1990s, over a million Rohingya have fled the country and become refugees around the world.

Rohingya refugees condemn Myanmar coup - community leader

REUTERS
Monday, 1 February 2021 

DHAKA, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Rohingya refugees condemned the overthrow of a democratically elected government in Myanmar by the military on Monday, a community leader said in Bangladesh, where a number of them live after fleeing violence in the neighbouring country.

"We Rohingya community strongly condemn this heinous attempt to kill democracy," Rohingya leader Dil Mohammed told Reuters by phone. "We urge the global community to come forward and restore democracy at any cost." (Reporting by Ruma Paul; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. 

Will vaccine nationalism lead to the exclusion of Rohingya refugees?

The Daily Star  

Md Saimum Reza Talukder
January 27, 2021

An elderly Rohingya man carries his grandson in a refugee camp in Ukhiya, Bangladesh. Photo: AP

The World Health Organization (WHO) has adopted "leaving no one behind" and "equitable access to vaccines" as the basic principles for Covid-19 vaccination around the world. GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, has also set up "equitable and sustainable use of vaccines" and "leaving no one behind" as the core of their high-level strategy for worldwide immunisation. All these strategies are in alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals. However, global vaccination is not just a mere strategy or goal. This relates to the right to healthcare, which is an integral part of the right to life and must be ensured irrespective of nationality, religion, race, creed or culture.

Rohingya Brides Thought They Were Fleeing Violence. Then They Met Their Grooms.

VICE
Pari Saikia
25.01.2021

In a VICE World News investigation, Rohingya women share their harrowing stories of being sold to men in Kashmir.

IMAGE: OWI LUINIC/VIC

KASHMIR, India—Her baby cradled in her arms, Muskan recalls the winter night when she was duped into traveling more than 2,000 miles to be married to a man 30 years older than her.

“My legs were swollen and hurting because of the beatings and intense cold,” Muskan told VICE World News at her house in Kashmir, a stunning but conflict-ridden mountainous valley administered by India. “I felt miserable. I couldn’t see a way out.”

Five years have passed since she made the harrowing journey from her home in Myanmar. But Muskan can’t forget the horror of being held captive in the middle of the freezing winter, locked in a room without a toilet. The traffickers wouldn’t even let her and the other young trafficked women leave to use the bathroom. Muskan said their male captors beat them when they refused to marry complete strangers, often older men suffering from mental disabilities. Many of the marriages were arranged by families who struggled to find a caretaker for these men, she said.

WFP Bangladesh | Rohingya Refugee Response Situation Report #45 - December 2020

Situation Report
Source WFP
Posted 20 Jan 2021

End of Year Report Field and Technical Units 2020: Rohingya Refugee Response - Bangladesh Field and Technical Units – End of Year Report 2020

UNHCR
18 Jan 2021

ANALYSIS - New scopes for Bangladesh to put pressure on Myanmar for Rohingya repatriation

AA

Md. Kamruzzaman

ISTANBUL

08.12.2020

If Dhaka fails to mount due pressure on Naypyidaw from the very beginning of the newly elected government, Rohingya repatriation issue may lag behind, putting Bangladesh through unnecessary troubles 

The writer is an Asia-based journalist who writes on diplomacy, human rights, climate change, and the refugee crisis. 

More than one million people, forced to leave their homeland amid cycles of mass killings, gang rapes, and arson attacks for decades and who have taken shelter in a neighboring country as stateless people, can never be an internal matter of any country. The issue drew greater global attention with 700 thousand Rohingya fleeing their country and crossing the border to Bangladesh three years ago now within a span of just a few months. Thus, the Rohingya refugee crisis is no more a domestic or internal matter of Myanmar; rather, it is now one of the most crucial global crises.

WFP Bangladesh: Rohingya Refugee Response | Situation Report #42 (September 2020)

 

S. Korea to provide US$10 mln in aid for Rohingya refugees

YONHAP NEWS AGENCY

October 23, 2020 

SEOUL, Oct. 23 (Yonhap) -- South Korea plans to provide US$10 million in humanitarian assistance to support Rohingya refugees who fled from Myanmar and hosting countries in the region, the foreign ministry said Friday.

Seoul made the pledge on Thursday during the virtual session of the Conference on Sustaining Support for the Rohingya Refugee Response, a multilateral channel set up to discuss humanitarian aid and other support measures for the ethnic minority.

Saudi Arabia Participates in Donor Conference for Rohingya Refugees

MENAFN
Date 10/22/2020

(MENAFN - Saudi Press Agency) Riyadh, October 22, 2020, SPA -- The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia participated in Donor Conference for Rohingya Refugees that was held in Geneva today virtually.

The Kingdom's delegation was headed by the Advisor at the Royal Court and Supervisor General of King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSrelief) Dr. Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Rabeeah.

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.