Rohingya Woman Recounts Agonizing Sea Crossing

VOA

Sarah Aziz
KOLKATA, INDIA
January 10, 2023

Rohingya refugee Hatemon Nesa, 27, and her daughter Umme Salima, 5, after being rescued in Aceh, Indonesia on Dec. 26, 2022.

 In Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, Rohingya Muslim refugee Anwara Begum, 55, choked back tears as she tried to cajole her 7-year-old granddaughter, Umme Habiba, into swallowing a morsel of food.

Habiba was unconsolable, wailing in grief for her 27-year-old mother, Hatemon Nesa, and her 5-year-old sister, Umme Salima. The family had recently learned that the engine of the Malaysia-bound ramshackle wooden boat the two were on had broken down at sea. 

KS relief provides Rohingya refugee women and children lifesaving aid

ARAB NEWS
SHEHAB SUMON
September 08, 2022 

In this photo taken in May 2022, Rohingya beneficiaries of KSrelief aid are seen at a refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. (KSrelief)

• Over $25m already for Bangladesh’s squalid Cox’s Bazar
• Maternal care, food, shelter and education provided

DHAKA: When in 2017 Rohingya Muslims fled persecution in Myanmar, most sought shelter in neighboring Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar that now has over 1.2 million living in squalid conditions, and where Saudi Arabia is focusing part of its global relief efforts.

The mass arrival of Rohingyas has turned the coastal region of the country’s southeast into the world’s largest refugee settlement, with women and children being the biggest and most vulnerable group dependent on external aid.

Although Bangladesh is not a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, it has been hosting and providing humanitarian support for those displaced. But many complex interventions require costly care, and Saudi Arabia has been a key donor.

Deportation of Rohingya woman from India sparks fear of renewed crackdown

THE GUARDIAN
Aakash Hassan
Thu 14 Apr 2022 

Hasina Begum was separated from her family and forced to return to Myanmar despite her refugee status. Hundreds of others now face expulsion  

Rohingya refugees at a makeshift camp on the outskirts of Jammu, India, last year. Photograph: Channi Anand/AP

The deportation of a Rohingya woman back to Myanmar has sparked fears that India is preparing to expel many more refugees from the country.


Hasina Begum, 37, was deported from Indian-administered Kashmir two weeks ago, despite holding a UN verification of her refugee status, intended to protect holders from arbitrary detention. Begum was among 170 refugees arrested and detained in Jammu in March last year. Her husband and three children, who also have UN refugee status, remain in Kashmir.

The women of Myanmar: ‘Our place is in the revolution’

Aljazeera

Umayma Khan
25 Apr 2021

Some 60 percent of protesters against the military coup are women who fear their hard-won rights hang in the balance.

Protesters against the military coup in Myanmar are surrounded by women’s clothes which have been hung in the streets to keep soldiers and police away [Stringer/Anadolu]

Every day at sunrise, Daisy* and her sisters set out to spend several hours in the heat cleaning debris from the previous day’s protests off the streets of Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city.

Protests have erupted around the country since the military seized control of the government after arresting democratic leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, on February 1, and declared a year-long state of emergency.

Those Rohingya Women in the Jammu Camps

The WIRE
Neha Dixit

26 March 2021

After recent arrests, hundreds of Rohingya refugees have started fleeing relief camps in Jammu. Here are the stories of three women who lived in these camps.

On March 7 this year, close to 160 Rohingya refugees living in Jammu were detained in a sub-jail. According to officials, they were sent to a “holding centre” under the Foreigners Act and did not hold valid travel documents.

India does not have any legislation recognising refugees, but the country adheres to the principle of non-refoulement (not sending refugees to a place where they face danger) as part of the customary international law. Some of them have cards issued by the UN High Commission for Refugees acknowledging their status as refugees.

‘She Is a Hero’: In Myanmar’s Protests, Women Are on the Front Lines

The New York Times

Hannah Beech
March 5, 2021
阅读简体中文版閱讀繁體中文版Leer en español

A protester offered roses to the police in Yangon, Myanmar, last month.Credit...The New York Times

Despite the danger, women have been at the forefront of the movement, rebuking the generals who ousted a female civilian leader.

A protester offered roses to the police in Yangon, Myanmar, last month.Credit...The New York Times


Ma Kyal Sin loved taekwondo, spicy food and a good red lipstick. She adopted the English name Angel, and her father hugged her goodbye when she went out on the streets of Mandalay, in central Myanmar, to join the crowds peacefully protesting the recent seizure of power by the military.

Thailand arrests 19 Rohingya, Thai woman for illegal entry

FRANCH 24 

Bangkok (AFP)

09/01/2021

 

Immigration officers watch over the group of Rohingya who are said to have illegally entered Thailand after being smuggled overland from Myanmar's Rakhine state Handout THAILAND IMMIGRATION BUREAU/AFP

Nineteen Rohingya and a Thai woman accused of housing them have been arrested for illegal entry to Thailand, police said Saturday, as concerns grow about trafficking routes for the Muslim minority fleeing Myanmar.

The embattled Rohingya have long faced persecution in Myanmar, where they are denied freedom of movement and citizenship, and lack access to work, healthcare and schools.

A 2017 military crackdown in western Rakhine state sent almost 750,000 fleeing across the border to Bangladesh, while many choose to embark on treacherous journeys with human smugglers to reach Malaysia and Indonesia, sometimes going through Thailand. 

In a Bangladesh refugee camp, I'm worried about what lockdown means for the safety of Rohingya women

INDEPENDENT

Sharmin Akter
May 26' 2020

A young woman that I helped recently needed nine stitches after her neighbour’s husband slashed the soles of her feet with a knife – during an argument over hygiene conditions

Now that Covid-19 has reached the Rohingya refugee camps, there is a very real risk that the virus could spread like wildfire. More than 800,000 people are living here in homes that are small, close together and overcrowded. Typically, there are five to seven people living in one 10 x 15 foot shelter made out of bamboo and tarpaulin, and this makes social distancing incredibly difficult.

How Rohingya women become fodder for sex trafficking

DhakaTribune

Hasan Al Javed
December 18th, 2019

The Police Bureau of Investigation says they are investigating 35 cases of trafficking involving the Rohingyas Syed Zakir Hossain/Dhaka Tribune

Around 250,000 Rohingyas have gone overseas by illegally acquiring Bangladesh passports, with the help of locals 

The modern slave trade around the world generates more than $150 billion, according to the United Nations. And 70% of the world’s 4.8 million sex trafficking victims are in the Asia-Pacific region.

Rohingya woman's NID data in EC’s server

Dhaka Tribune
Bilkis Irani
August 23rd, 2019

File photo of Nirbachan Bhaban, which houses the offices of the Election Commission and its secretariat, in Dhaka's Agargaon Syed Zakir Hossain/Dhaka Tribune

EC to investigate duplicitous data entry

Recently, a Rohingya woman's national identity card (NID) was created using a fake name and address in Hathazari, Chittagong. Even her information is stored in the Election Commission's (EC) database.

According to the EC, this Rohingya woman’s name is Ramjan Bibi but she used her name as one ‘Lucky’ and apparently created fake national identity card.

“We Need to Write Our Own Names”: Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in the Rohingya Humanitarian Response in Cox’s Bazar - Gender Operational Review Report, July 2019

Rohingya Women Aren't Just Refugees—They're Leaders

marie clarie

By Jennifer Chowdhury

Jul 9, 2019 

In June 2018, the Shalbagan refugee camp in Bangladesh, home to 41,000 Rohingya—the Muslim minority group that fled genocide in Myanmar—became the first of 30 new camps to elect leaders. When the results were tallied, organizers at the United Nations Refugee Agency and The Adventist Development and Relief Agency International, which spearheaded the vote, were pleasantly surprised to learn female refugees had won half of the 12 volunteer seats. “I’ve always been interested in helping out, so when I got the chance to run, I did,” says Rehana Akhter, 35, one of the newly elected members. “This has never happened before in our society!”

Rohingya women, girls being trafficked to Malaysia for marriage

Ajazeera

by Kaamil Ahmed

08-05-2019

Al Jazeera reveals how refugees in Bangladesh camps are vulnerable to proposals from single Rohingya men in Malaysia.

 Hamida holds up a picture of her 15-year-old daughter-in-law, who was brought from Myanmar and into Bangladesh and then smuggled to Malaysia to marry her son [Kaamil Ahmed/Al Jazeera]

Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Senwara Begum travelled for two weeks by road and boat, over mountains and along rivers, guided only by a trafficker she feared, before she reached Malaysia to marry a man she had never met.

Rohingya refugee and Bangladeshi women weave a brighter future

UNHCR UK
By Caroline Gluck
Ukhiya and Kutupalong,
16 April 2019

A skills programme promotes self-reliance and aims to transform the lives of rural women in south-eastern Bangladesh.

Rohingya refugee Mushida holds her daughter Sharmin while learning to embroider in Kutupalong refugee camp.

In a bamboo thatched women’s centre in Kutupalong, more than a dozen Rohingya refugees are sitting closely together on mats and concentrating so fiercely on their sewing that barely a sound can be heard.
Only the encouraging murmurs of a trainer who checks on their progress break the silence of the focused women.

4 Rohingya women held in Kurigram

The Daily Star
Wednesday, "April 3, 2019"

Police today detained five women including four Rohingas who tried to obtain Bangladeshi passport from Regional Passport Office (RPO) in Kurigram.

The Rohingya women are: Fatema, 26, daughter of Ashraf Ali; Mim, 25, daughter of Abdul Awal; Aleya Khatun, 26, daughter of Joynal Abedin; and Nuruka Akhtar, 25, daughter of Box Mia from Kutupalong Rohingya Camp in Cox’s Bazar where they have been living after fleeing persecution in Myanmar.

Rohingya Women Request ICC Probe Into Genocide

MENAFN
Date 3/20/2019

(MENAFN - Nam News Network) BANGLADESH, March 20 (NNN-TELESUR) - Female Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh formed a support group and moved to the ICC urging them to investigate the ongoing genocide against Rohingyas.

University hails Japan for helping empower Asian women

The Japan News
March 16, 2019

By Ikuko Higuchi / Japan News Staff Writer Japan was hailed by the Asian University for Women’s vice chancellor, Prof. Nirmala Rao, for helping make such a success of the university at an AUW fundraising event at the Tokyo American Club in the capital’s Minato Ward on Thursday.

“The first support group (for the university) was Japan’s, and it makes the largest contribution,” said Prof. Rao in her speech at the event. “Today, 38 percent of AUW’s entire budget comes from Japan.”

According to Prof. Rao, more than 800 students of 17 countries and 35 ethnicities, including Rohingya refugees who fled from violence in Myanmar, are currently enrolled at AUW. The majority of the students, 72 percent, are on full scholarship from the university, funded by foundations and businesses in the United States, Europe and Asia.

Rohingya adolescent girls, women participate in exhibitions

UNB

Publish Date - March 10, 2019, 

Publish Date - March 10, 2019,

Dhaka, Mar 10 (UNB) - Rohingya women, adolescent girls, children and Imams as well as civil society organizations have participated in two art and handicraft exhibitions held in Cox’s Bazar recently.

Rohingya Refugee Women Meditate to Reduce Stress

VOA

South & Central Asia

March 10, 2019 1:40 AM
Muazzem Hossain Shakil 

About 1 million Rohingya refugees live in Cox's Bazar camp in Bangladesh, mostly women and girls. The U.N. says most of them suffered severe traumatic experiences. Some have lost their children, husbands and other family members, and others have been victims of sexual harassment, even rape. With hope of a better future, some Rohingya women in the camp are learning meditation to help them recover. VOA's Muazzem Shakil visited one of these sessions and filed this report narrated by Bezhan Hamdard.

Link : https://www.voanews.com/a/rohingya-refugee-women-meditate-to-reduce-stress/4821963.html

Life for Rohingya women, the real and hidden crisis

INDEPENDENT
2019 March 8

Behind the headlines in any conflict, women and girls endure sexual violence, loss of livelihood and life-threatening issues with maternal and infant health. Here, leading charities shine a light on the lesser-known struggles of Rohingya refugees

Marjina*, 25, with her two-month-old daughter Asma in Balukhali refugee camp ( Oxfam ) 

It is now 18 months since the plight of the Rohingya hit the headlines, when the mass exodus of people from Myanmar peaked following an escalation in violence.

Since August 2017, more than 706,000 people, mostly women and children, have fled for safety across the border into Bangladesh. Many had seen family members killed, have been shot, suffered burns or are survivors of sexual violence.