Burmese refugees in Bangladesh

For Rohingya refugees, see also the Arakan State section of "Administration and administrative areas" http://www.burmalibrary.org/show.php?cat=1241&lo=&sl= and the Rohingya section of Human Rights.
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Individual Documents

Title: Rohingyas in Rakhine: Myanmar still forcing them to flee homes
Description: ''Rather than creating conditions for the return of the Rohingyas, Myanmar is engaging in a sustained campaign of violence, intimidation and harassment of the ethnic minority, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar said yesterday. “I spoke to one woman who arrived in Cox's Bazar a matter of days ago after her father was stabbed to death by Myanmar security forces. A man I spoke to told me that he and his entire family fled recently after his mother and sister were abducted and raped,” Yanghee Lee said...''
Source/publisher: The Daily Star via "Reuters"
Date of publication: 2019-01-26
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-26
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Title: UN envoy: No prospect Rohingya refugees can go home soon
Description: ''A U.N. human rights envoy said Friday that hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslim refugees won’t be able to return to Myanmar soon because of threats to their safety in the Buddhist-majority nation. Myanmar has been criticized by global rights groups and many nations for state-sponsored violence against ethnic minorities. Yanghee Lee, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, also criticized India and Saudi Arabia for mistreatment of the Rohingya in those countries amid global calls for protections for Rohingya Muslims. Lee spent 10 days in Thailand and Bangladesh, speaking to refugees living in Bangladesh, authorities, U.N. agencies and international experts. More than 700,000 Rohingya refugees have fled into Bangladesh since late August 2017. “It is clear that Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh cannot return to Myanmar in the near future,” she said...''
Julhas Alam
Source/publisher: The Washington Post
Date of publication: 2019-01-26
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-26
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Title: China offers Myanmar support over Rohingya issue after US rebuke
Description: ''China supports the Myanmar government's efforts to protect domestic stability and approach to resolving the Rohingya issue, Premier Li Keqiang told the country's leader Aung San Suu Kyi, after US Vice-President Mike Pence offered a strong rebuke. Mr Pence on Wednesday (Nov 14) voiced Washington's strongest condemnation yet of Myanmar's treatment of Rohingya Muslims, telling Ms Suu Kyi that "persecution" by her country's army was "without excuse". Meeting Ms Suu Kyi on the sidelines of the Asean Summit in Singapore, Ms Li said China attaches great importance to its ties with Myanmar and would build on their tradition of friendship, China's Foreign Ministry said late on Thursday...''
Source/publisher: The Straits Times
Date of publication: 2018-11-16
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-23
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Title: Rohingya repatriation, relocation plans pushed back to 2019 after failed first attempt and protests
Description: ''Abul Kalam, Bangladesh’s refugee relief and repatriation commissioner, told Reuters “a new course of action” needed to be adopted on repatriation that took into account refugees’ key demands. More than 720,000 Rohingya fled a sweeping army crackdown in Myanmar’s Rakhine state in 2017, according to UN agencies. The crackdown was launched in response to insurgent Rohingya attacks on security forces. Rohingya refugees say soldiers and Buddhist civilians killed families, burned many villages and carried out gang rapes. UN-mandated investigators have accused Myanmar’s army of “genocidal intent” and ethnic cleansing. Myanmar has denied almost all the accusations, saying its forces engaged in a counter-insurgency operation against “terrorists”...''
Source/publisher: South China Morning Post
Date of publication: 2018-11-19
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-23
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Title: Bangladesh-Myanmar: The Danger of Forced Rohingya Repatriation
Description: ''Bangladesh is poised to begin returning several thousand Rohingya refugees to Myanmar. This repatriation is unlikely to be voluntary and should not proceed. It would not only violate Bangladesh’s international legal obligations and jeopardise the safety of the refugees, but risks triggering violence and greater instability on both sides of the border. Bangladesh and Myanmar should immediately halt the plan. The UN, including the secretary-general’s special envoy and the UN refugee agency, should continue to firmly oppose it, both in public and in private, and establish a process whereby Rohingya refugees are consulted about their future. The U.S., European Union (EU), Australia, Canada and others also should press Bangladesh and Myanmar to halt the returns and instead work to create conditions conducive to voluntary repatriation...''
Source/publisher: International Crisis Group
Date of publication: 2018-11-12
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-21
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Title: Arakan Army clashes with government forces in Rakhine state
Description: '' Myanmar’s security forces have clashed with ethnic rebels in the country’s western Rakhine state bordering Bangladesh, the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar reported on January 2. The clash happened near Saytaung in Buthidaung township and involved rebels from the Arakan Army (AA) group of the Rakhine, the Buddhist majority in the state. Rakhine state also has a Muslim minority, the Rohingya, who live in the state’s northern townships. More than 700,000 Rohingya fled across the border into Bangladesh after an armed Rohingya group attacked police and military outposts in August 2017. The Myanmar army launched a massive offensive in the area in retaliation to the attack...''
Bertil Lintner
Source/publisher: Asia Times
Date of publication: 2019-01-03
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-18
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Title: Bangladesh: Poor Conditions for Rohingya Refugees with Disabilities (Accessible) - (video)
Description: ''Bangladesh’s overcrowded, hilly, and rain-soaked mega camp for ethnic Rohingya refugees is precarious for everyone, but especially for people with disabilities. More than 700,000 people reside in the camp after fleeing the Myanmar military’s campaign of ethnic cleansing more than a year ago...''
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 2018-09-24
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-18
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Title: China seeks big-ticket payback from Myanmar
Description: "As China surges forward again in Myanmar, new pressure to restart a controversial dam project could represent a watershed moment for bilateral relations. The Beijing-backed US$3.6 billion Myitsone dam project, which if built as previously designed would flood 600 square kilometers of forestland in northern Kachin state and export 90 % of the power produced to China, was suspended by Myanmar’s previous military-dominated government in September 2011."
Bertil Lintner
Source/publisher: Asia Times
Date of publication: 2019-01-16
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-18
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Title: Massacre by the River
Description: ''On August 30, 2017, Hassina Begum, a 20-year-old ethnic Rohingya woman, was among the few survivors of a massacre of unspeakable brutality. Just days after a deadly attack by Rohingya militants against Burmese security forces, hundreds of Burmese soldiers in uniform, along with ethnic Rakhine villagers armed with machetes and wooden sticks, attacked the village of Tula Toli, officially known as Min Gyi, in Maungdaw Township in Burma’s Rakhine State, also known as Arakan State. The advancing soldiers trapped several hundred unarmed Rohingya Muslim villagers, including Hassina, on the large bank of the river, which surrounds Tula Toli on three sides. As they approached, some fired at the crowd, others toward people trying to flee. While some Rohingya managed to escape, swimming across the fast-moving river or dashing to the surrounding hills, many terrified villagers could not run away or swim. Families with young children had no chance to flee...''
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 2018-12-19
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-18
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Title: Myanmar: Disband Panel on Crimes Against Rohingya
Description: ''(New York) – Myanmar should disband its commission of inquiry into abuses in Rakhine state because it is clearly unwilling to seriously investigate alleged grave crimes against ethnic Rohingya, Human Rights Watch said today. At a news conference on December 12, 2018, Rosario Manalo, chair of the Independent Commission of Enquiry, stated that the commission had found “no evidence” to support allegations of human rights abuses in the four months since it officially opened its investigation. Her statement shows that the commission is disregarding evidence and testimony collected by United Nations fact-finders, the United States State Department, and international human rights organizations since violence broke out in Rakhine State in 2016...''
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 2018-12-19
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-18
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Title: UNHCR visit to Rakhine State postponed
Description: ''Myanmar has postponed a planned visit by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, The New Age, a Bangladesh daily, reported on January 15. Myanmar authorities canceled the trip following renewed fighting between government forces and ethnic rebels in Rakhine State. Thirteen Myanmar police officers were killed by Arakan Army militants on January 4 in attacks near the border with Bangladesh. Grandi was supposed to visit areas where hundreds of thousands of Muslim Rohingya refugees fled from to Bangladesh in 2017. The UNHCR was supposed to oversee a repatriation of the refugees in accordance with agreements reached between Myanmar and Bangladesh, but The New Age quoted an unnamed UN Security Council diplomat as saying the Myanmar side had “done nothing at all and didn’t particularly want that to be exposed.”
Bertil Lintner
Source/publisher: Asia Times
Date of publication: 2019-01-17
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-18
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Title: 2019: The Year Ahead in Asia
Description: Put simply, 2018 was a difficult year for Myanmar. The fallout from the Rohingya crisis has increased as the UN and assorted parliaments and governments have labelled it genocide and applied targeted sanctions. While humanitarian access and diplomatic dialogue have improved, the situation on the ground remains dire, with Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh refusing to leave. Domestically, the NLD government of Aung San Suu Kyi faces growing criticism over the lack of movement in the peace process and the slow pace of reforms, particularly economic ones. As the country struggles both domestically and internationally, many wonder if Myanmar’s historic effort to reform and democratize is being lost in transition. Nevertheless, Aung San Suu Kyi and her party remain popular overall. If she can secure greater international involvement in resolving the Rohingya crisis—for instance, through the UN and ASEAN—encourage greater economic growth, and catalyze some high-profile reforms, such as to the banking sector and local public administration, both international support and Myanmar public opinion will likely be reinvigorated...''
Source/publisher: Asia Foundation
Date of publication: 2019-01-02
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-13
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Title: Atrocities as the New Normal
Description: ''This month we celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. To mark the occasion, we have asked Human Rights Watch experts to reflect on some of the key human rights challenges in their area of specialty. There is no more daunting challenge for the human rights movement than trying to spare civilians from the litany of abuses associated with the raging conflicts of our time, those that are claiming the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and causing millions to flee across international borders. Where there once was outrage and demands for action, complacency has set in. How did it come to this? For a while, the world seemed determined to put an end to the most horrendous crimes facing humanity. Buoyed by the end of the Cold War, outraged by the genocide in Rwanda and ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, a global movement was born in the new millennium with a powerful rallying cry, echoing that of Holocaust survivors: never again. Its ideas were radical at the time: no government was to hide behind its sovereignty to massacre its own people and no head of state was to stand above the law...''
Philippe Bolopion
Date of publication: 2018-12-10
Date of entry/update: 2018-12-15
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Title: Human Rights in 2018: Ten Issues That Made Headlines
Description: ''On December 10, the world marks 70 years since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Regrettably, instead of the anniversary signalling the enduring impact of human rights, some are fearing the “end of human rights.” Here we highlight some of the rights challenges that captured the world’s attention this year, illustrating the struggle to secure human rights is far from over...''
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 2018-12-09
Date of entry/update: 2018-12-15
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Title: Rohingya Refugees Terrified of Being Forced Back to Myanmar
Description: ''“How can we go back?” Mohammad, a Rohingya refugee in a Bangladesh camp called to tell me. “They will kill us if we go back.” There is panic in the refugee camps, he said, after Myanmar and Bangladesh announced plans to start refugee repatriations very soon. While the Bangladeshi government accepted approximately 700,000 Rohingya refugees after the Myanmar army’s ethnic cleansing campaign, Rohingya say authorities are now pressuring them to return. Around 30 families are supposed to leave shortly. Security forces have been deployed in the refugee camps even as Bangladeshi officials said that there won’t be any forced returns. Myanmar authorities say they have verified the identities of 4,000 Rohingya to be returned, but no one quite knows who is on that list. Some, fearing that they are included, have fled from the camps. Others threaten or attempt suicide...''
Meenakshi Ganguly
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 2018-11-14
Date of entry/update: 2018-12-15
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Title: Beyond Devastation: Suffering and Perseverance Among the Rohingya
Description: "The suffering of the Rohingya people in 2017 is beyond superlatives. The violence and brutality in the stories of those who have had opportunities to share are difficult to fathom, but as you hear one after another, they also become sadly repetitious. Masses of humanity have been uprooted from their villages in Burma, heaped into refugee camps in Bangladesh and awaiting an unknown fate. Once again, our ability to comprehend how one person suffers is overwhelmed by the scale on which the suffering is happening. The oppression of the Rohingya people has been ongoing for years, but on August 25th, 2017, as tens of thousands of fleeing refugees turned into hundreds of thousands – it became an issue the world could no longer ignore. Displacement on this scale, happening so quickly, was an extraordinary event. The Burma Army conducted a near-eradication of Rohingya people from Burma with incredible efficiency as more than 600,000 people fled their homes in the space of three months. In the months following the initial attacks, that number would climb to 720,000 as people kept coming. The stories from the refugees paint a pretty clear picture: the Burma Army came in trucks, surrounded villages, shot indiscriminately, killing villagers as they fled and chasing them to neighboring Bangladesh. Then the soldiers burned the villages to the ground. Again and again. Satellite photos of burned villages corroborate these accounts..."
Source/publisher: Free Burma Rangers
Date of publication: 2018-10-20
Date of entry/update: 2018-12-13
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Title: FBR Rohingya Team Completes First Mission Into Arakan State
Description: "In August 2018, the newly-trained Free Burma Ranger Rohingya team completed their first mission to help the people and get the news out from their home of Arakan State, which the Burma Army heavily controls. The team crossed from Bangladesh into Burma amidst border patrols, Burma Army gunfire, and monsoon rains. Once on the Burma side, the rangers hiked for several hours through the night, finally taking refuge in an abandoned village. During the next two weeks, the team based out of abandoned villages, gathering photos and videos of villages destroyed by the Burma Army during their “clearing operations” begun in August of 2017. At times, the rangers had to hide nearby to avoid Burma Army patrols in the areas they reconned. Nearly one year later, many of the destroyed villages the rangers discovered and recorded were mostly overgrown by jungle vegetation. In this jungle environment, it does not take long for evidence of destruction to be swallowed by nature..."
Source/publisher: Free Burma Rangers
Date of publication: 2018-10-04
Date of entry/update: 2018-12-13
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Title: Global Day of Prayer for Burma 2018
Source/publisher: Free Burma Rangers
Date of publication: 2018-11-30
Date of entry/update: 2018-12-13
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Title: "PRI’s The World: Dave Eubank Discusses the Rohingya Crisis"
Description: A water collection point in a Rohingya refugee camp. The upcoming rainy season will create more problems for the make-shift living infrastructure. During a recent visit to the United States, Dave Eubank spoke with PRI’s The World regarding the Rohingya crisis, ARSA, and what the future may hold for Rohingya refugees. To listen to the interview, click the link below.
Dave Eubank
Source/publisher: Free Burma Rangers
Date of publication: 2018-04-25
Date of entry/update: 2018-12-13
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Title: Burma’s leader can’t help Rohingya minority until she consolidates power
Description: ''Regarding the Nov. 22 editorial “In Burma, a flashpoint ignites”: The treatment of the Rohingya, a Muslim minority, in Burma is appalling but, after years of studying, visiting and living in Burma, I can say with great confidence that Aung San Suu Kyi knows much about the mistreatment of the Rohingya and feels awful about it. If she were the editor of a U.S.-based newspaper, she would not hesitate to call attention to the inhumane treatment of the Rohingya. But she is the democratically elected leader of a country in the early stages of an immensely difficult political transition from five decades of military misrule. Ending the civil war that has raged since independence in 1948 is rightfully Aung San Suu Kyi’s top policy priority. Overcoming the deeply rooted anti-Muslim sentiment endemic in the Buddhist majority in Burma is also a priority, but nowhere in the world has it taken less than a generation to overcome such sentiments...''
Lex Rieffel
Date of publication: 2016-11-28
Date of entry/update: 2018-12-08
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Title: Malaysia appreciates UK assistance in addressing Rohingya issue, says DPM
Description: "LONDON, Dec 7 — Malaysia appreciates the United Kingdom’s assistance, including financial aid, in addressing issues involving the Rohingya refugees, said Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail. She said the financial aid provided by the United Kingdom was to finance humanitarian, education and health programmes in Malaysia, as well as for operation of the Malaysian Field Hospital at Cox Bazar in Bangladesh. “I am thankful to United Kingdom for helping the Rohingya refugees, now totalling almost 100,000 people (in Malaysia), she told Malaysian journalists covering her first official visit to the United Kingdom (UK) last night. Earlier, Dr Wan Azizah had discussion on bilateral relations between Kuala Lumpur and London with United Kingdom Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Jeremy Hunt..."
Source/publisher: malaymail
Date of publication: 2018-12-07
Date of entry/update: 2018-12-08
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Title: On the ground in Myanmar: The Rohingya crisis and a clash of values
Description: ''During my visit to Myanmar in mid-November, the latest of many since 2010, I witnessed new layers of complexity in the historical and political forces contributing to the Rohingya crisis. While the plight of the Rohingya population has galvanized international opinion, it has reinforced nationalist sentiment within a large segment of the Myanmar population and has drawn State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi closer to the powerful military establishment that she has opposed since leading a popular uprising 1988. As a result, the United States and other Western countries are finding it hard to punish the people who caused the flight of the Rohingya without undermining the transition to civilian rule that began in 2011...''
Source/publisher: Brookings
Date of publication: 2017-11-29
Date of entry/update: 2018-12-08
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Title: On the ground in Myanmar: The Rohingya crisis and a clash of values
Description: ''During my visit to Myanmar in mid-November, the latest of many since 2010, I witnessed new layers of complexity in the historical and political forces contributing to the Rohingya crisis. While the plight of the Rohingya population has galvanized international opinion, it has reinforced nationalist sentiment within a large segment of the Myanmar population and has drawn State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi closer to the powerful military establishment that she has opposed since leading a popular uprising 1988. As a result, the United States and other Western countries are finding it hard to punish the people who caused the flight of the Rohingya without undermining the transition to civilian rule that began in 2011...''
Lex Rieffel
Source/publisher: Brookings
Date of publication: 2017-11-29
Date of entry/update: 2018-12-08
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Title: Peace in Myanmar depends on settling centuries-old ethnic conflicts
Description: ''Myanmar won its independence from British colonial rule in 1948. Sadly its history since then has been massively unhappy. From being the best educated (apart from Japan) country in East Asia, it spiraled down over the ensuing 65 years to being possibly the worst educated as well as one of the poorest. The primary cause of this decline was the world’s longest continuing civil war in which the ethnic Bamar Buddhist majority in the central valley has sought to dominate dozens of non-Buddhist ethnic minorities inhabiting the mountainous borderlands. A remarkably free and fair election in 2015 was won in a landslide by the National League for Democracy (NLD) led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who had spent most of the previous 25 years under house arrest by the country’s military rulers. Her government took office in April 2016 with control of parliament, but she was barred from the presidency by a provision in the country’s military-drafted constitution of 2008. The president, U Htin Kyaw, is an NLD leader and close associate of Daw Suu. She governs in the newly created position of state counsellor and as the foreign minister...''
Lex Rieffel
Date of publication: 2017-03-20
Date of entry/update: 2018-12-08
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Title: The Rohingya people need help, but Aung San Suu Kyi is not to blame for their mistreatment
Description: ''Advocacy is easy, governance is hard. Yes, the Rohingya people in Burma are being horribly mistreated, but the Aug. 18 editorial “Burma tries to hide its mistreatment of the Rohingya” was aimed at the wrong target. The elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi since April 2016 is being denied the ability to govern according to its high principles by the military establishment that ruled the country from 1962 to 2015 and remains a state within the state. It is the military, not the civilian government, that wants to deny the U.N. fact-finding mission access to the crime scene. And the military’s position is supported by the Buddhist-majority population in which the military has instilled over decades a fear of being displaced by Muslims, such as the Rohingya, and other non-Buddhists...''
Lex Rieffel
Source/publisher: The Washington Post
Date of publication: 2017-08-25
Date of entry/update: 2018-12-08
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Title: Rohingya sent back to Myanmar camps hungry and in debt
Description: ''Fleeing Rohingya Muslims sold ration books to help pay hundreds of dollars to traffickers in order to flee squalid Myanmar camps by boat, only to be stopped at sea and forced back destitute, the refugees told AFP on Friday. Images of hungry and thirsty refugees huddled on boats have stirred memories of a 2015 crisis, when thousands of fleeing Rohingya were stuck at sea as a trafficking trail south collapsed. Some 120,000 of the stateless Muslim minority have languished in camps in central Rakhine for six years since a bloody bout of intercommunal violence with ethnic Rakhine Buddhists...''
Source/publisher: Mizzima
Date of publication: 2018-12-08
Date of entry/update: 2018-12-08
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Title: Rohingya sent back to Myanmar camps in ‘acute need’
Description: "Yangon: Rohingya Muslims who paid hundreds of dollars to flee squalid Myanmar camps by boat are destitute since they were stopped at sea and returned, the UN refugee agency said. Images of hungry and thirsty Rohingya huddled on boats have stirred memories of a 2015 crisis, when thousands of fleeing Rohingya were stuck at sea as a trafficking trail south collapsed. Some 120,000 of the stateless Muslim minority have languished in camps in central Rakhine for six years since a bloody bout of intercommunal violence with ethnic Rakhine Buddhists. The end of the monsoon brings more favourable, if still treacherous, sailing conditions for those desperate to escape the camps that are branded as “open-air prisons” by rights groups and where Rohingya have little access to work, education or healthcare..."
Source/publisher: The Star Online
Date of publication: 2018-12-08
Date of entry/update: 2018-12-08
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Title: Cardinal Tagle visits Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh
Description: The president of Caritas Internationalis, the global federation of national Catholic charities is calling on the international community to continue to help the displaced Muslim minority in Bangladesh. Filipino Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle made the appeal after visiting a refugee camp for Rohingya Muslims in Bangladesh who fled atrocities in Myanmar. The 61-year old Archbishop of Manila kicked off his 2-day visit to Bangladesh on Dec. 3 by visiting refugee families, aid workers including Caritas staff and government officials in Cox's Bazar district in southeast Bangladesh.
Source/publisher: Vatican News
Date of publication: 2018-12-07
Date of entry/update: 2018-12-07
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Title: ICC exploring ways to investigate Rohingya deportation as crime against humanity
Description: "The International Criminal Court (ICC) is exploring ways to conduct investigations into the forced deportations of hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas from Myanmar to Bangladesh as a possible crime against humanity, a top diplomat at the Foreign Ministry told the Dhaka Tribune on Thursday. “This is our best bet to bring those responsible on the other side of the border to account for their crimes,” he said, expressing optimism that the ICC investigation will help solve the Rohingya crisis Bangladesh is facing without being a party to it. “Most importantly, it might pave the way for the Rohingyas, who suffered extremely to get justice they deserve,” he added. The diplomat did not specify the date and time of beginning and completion of the investigation..."
Humayun Kabir Bhuiyan
Source/publisher: Dhaka Tribune
Date of publication: 2018-12-07
Date of entry/update: 2018-12-07
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Title: Myanmar gets ‘weak’ criticism over Rohingya at ASEAN summit (video)
Description: "The Association of Southeast Asian Nations has stopped short of criticising Myanmar for atrocities committed against Rohingya as its leaders met in Singapore. Al Jazeera's Wayne Hay reports..."
Source/publisher: Al Jazeera
Date of publication: 2018-11-15
Date of entry/update: 2018-12-07
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Title: Myanmar seizes boat with 93 Rohingya fleeing to Malaysia
Description: ''Authorities in Myanmar seized a boat carrying 93 Rohingya fleeing displacement camps in western Rakhine state in hopes to reach Malaysia, an official said on Tuesday. The vessel was the third bound for Malaysia stopped in Myanmar's waters since monsoon rains began to subside last month, bringing calmer weather and raising fears of a new wave of hazardous voyages after a 2015 crackdown on people smugglers. Moe Zaw Latt, director of the government office in Dawei, a coastal town in southern Myanmar, said fishermen reported a "suspicious" boat to authorities...''
Date of publication: 2018-11-27
Date of entry/update: 2018-12-07
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Title: Rohingya: end of monsoon prompts fresh wave of boats fleeing Myanmar
Description: "A new exodus of boats carrying Rohingya fleeing from Myanmar has begun, with at least six boats carrying hundreds of refugees intercepted at sea or washing ashore over the past month. The recent flurry of voyages making the treacherous crossing of the Andaman sea to seek refuge in Thailand and Malaysia is close to reaching levels last seen in 2015, which prompted the Thai authorities to crack down on human smuggling networks. Voyages tend to stop completely during monsoon season, which begins in June and creates dangerous conditions, but the end of the rains in October often leads to a fresh wave of boats taking to the calmer seas. Since August 2017, over 200 lives are estimated to have been lost in the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea, mainly in the crossing from Myanmar to Bangladesh..."
Source/publisher: The Guardian
Date of publication: 2018-12-05
Date of entry/update: 2018-12-07
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Title: Bangladesh seeks action against Myanmar minister over Rohingya 'brainwashed' remark
Description: "DHAKA: Bangladesh summoned the Myanmar ambassador on Wednesday (Dec 6) to condemn “irresponsible remarks” made by Myanmar’s religion minister about Rohingya Muslims, and called for action against him, senior officials at the Bangladesh foreign ministry said. Rohingya Muslims living as refugees in Bangladesh after escaping Myanmar are being “brainwashed” into “marching” on the Buddhist-majority nation, Myanmar’s religion minister Thura Aung Ko said in a video released by the news website NewsWatch. “We strongly protest their minister’s provocative remarks. It also hurt Muslim sentiments,” a senior official in the Bangladesh foreign ministry told Reuters on Thursday..."
Source/publisher: Channel NewsAsia
Date of publication: 2018-12-06
Date of entry/update: 2018-12-06
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Title: Bachelet: Returning Rohingya refugees to Myanmar would place them at serious risk of human rights violations
Description: "GENEVA (13 November 2018) ? UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet on Tuesday urged the Government of Bangladesh to halt plans for the repatriation of more than 2,200 Rohingya refugees to Myanmar, warning that the returns would be in violation of international law and put their lives and freedom at serious risk. The refugees in Cox?s Bazar are the victims of human rights violations committed in the midst of the violence that erupted in August 2017, which led to the flight of more than 725,000 people. Many witnessed the killings of members of their families and the burning down of their homes and villages. Refugees have stated repeatedly that they do not wish to return under current conditions. The Office also continues to receive reports of ongoing violations of the rights of Rohingya remaining in northern Rakhine, which include allegations of killings, disappearances and arbitrary arrests, as well as widespread restrictions on the rights to freedom of movement, health and education. About 130,000 internally displaced people (IDPs), many of whom are Rohingya, remain in camps in central Rakhine. Another 5,000 IDPs remain in No Man?s Land between Myanmar and Bangladesh while more than 4,000 are in Aung Mingalar ward in Sittwe, where they are subjected to a wide range of restrictions. Hundreds of thousands of people in other parts of Rakhine also remain deprived of their rights to freedom of movement, to basic services and livelihood ? as well as their right to a nationality..."
Source/publisher: United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner
Date of publication: 2018-11-13
Date of entry/update: 2018-11-15
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Title: Bangladesh admits no Rohingya willing to take repatriation offer
Description: "Buses standing ready to return refugees to Myanmar but no one is willing to board...Bangladesh has conceded that it will be unable to voluntarily repatriate Rohingya refugees to Myanmar as it had planned because it cannot find anyone willing to go back, though efforts to ?motivate” people to leave will continue. Four trucks and three buses were stationed at Unchiprang camp in Cox?s Bazar on Thursday morning, ready to carry refugees who have been ?approved” to a transit camp by the border, but not one refugee was willing to board them. Most refugees on a list of those approved to return have gone into hiding..."
Source/publisher: "The Guardian"
Date of publication: 2018-11-15
Date of entry/update: 2018-11-15
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Title: Bangladesh army arrives in Rohingya refugee camps as repatriations loom
Description: "Plans to send Rohingya refugees back to Myanmar on Thursday have gathered momentum, with reports of Bangladesh armed forces gathering in the Cox?s Bazar camps and allegations that refugees have been assaulted by the authorities for refusing to cooperate. The army, police and paramilitary troops have moved into several of the camps, where over 700,000 Rohingya are living after fleeing a campaign of violence, described as genocide by a UN fact-finding mission, carried out by the Myanmar military in August 2017. Qadar, a 29-year-old Rohingya refugee in Jamtoli camp, said many families, even those not among the list approved for return by Myanmar, had gone into hiding..."
Source/publisher: "The Guardian"
Date of publication: 2018-11-14
Date of entry/update: 2018-11-15
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Title: Bangladesh says Rohingya refugees will not be forced back to Myanmar
Description: "Bangladesh has said it is fully prepared to begin repatriating Rohingya refugees to Myanmar but emphasised it would not force anyone to go back against their will. Four trucks and three buses have been stationed at Unchiprang camp in Cox?s Bazar since Thursday morning, ready to carry refugees who have been ?approved” to a transit camp by the border ? but not one refugee has been willing to board them. Most on a list of those approved to return have gone into hiding. Mohammad Abul Kalam, Bangladesh?s refugee relief and rehabilitation commissioner, told the Guardian his team had completed the ?physical and logistical preparations” to facilitate the repatriation..."
Source/publisher: "The Guardian"
Date of publication: 2018-11-15
Date of entry/update: 2018-11-15
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Title: Does repatriation of Rohingya breach international law? (video)
Description: "Bangladesh halts transportation of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar after protests...The first group of 2,200 Rohingya refugees were due to leave camps in Bangladesh on Thursday in line with a plan agreed with Myanmar. But authorities appeared to postpone the operation after protests by Rohingya who said they did not want to go. The United Nations and aid agencies also expressed concerns for their safety if they went back to Myanmar. The United Nations described as an "act of genocide" the military crackdown last year when more than 700,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar?s Rakhine state. So, does the repatriation deal violate international law? And what is next for the Rohingya refugees that do not want to leave?"
Source/publisher: Al Jazeera (Inside Story)
Date of publication: 2018-11-15
Date of entry/update: 2018-11-15
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Title: Forced repatriation of Rohingya refugees
Description: "Following a bilateral agreement between the governments of Myanmar (Burma) and Bangladesh, the repatriation of more than 2,000 Rohingya refugees back to Myanmar is due to begin tomorrow, 15 November. The decision has been widely criticized as it places returnees at extreme risk of further persecution, and was taken without the consent of either the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) or Rohingya refugee organizations. Forced repatriation under such conditions violates the principle of non-refoulement enshrined in the 1951 Refugee Convention, and would be both immoral and illegal. According to the UN Human Rights Council- mandated Independent International Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) on Myanmar, military operations launched in Rakhine State by Myanmar?s security forces during 2017 were conducted with "genocidal intent," including a premeditated plan for the destruction of Rohingya communities. Following the widespread killing of Rohingya civilians and the burning of nearly 400 villages, over 720,000 people fled the country, bringing the number of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh to more than 900,000..."
Source/publisher: relifweb via "Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect"
Date of publication: 2018-11-14
Date of entry/update: 2018-11-15
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Title: Mounting confusion over forced Rohingya repatriation to Myanmar
Description: "Expulsion planned for Thursday may not go ahead as Rohingya go into hiding while agencies warn return too dangerous...There is growing confusion over whether the planned forced repatriation of Rohingya Muslims back to Myanmar will begin on Thursday as planned. Bangladesh began preparations to send back an initial group of Rohingya to Myanmar in line with a bilateral plan agreed by the two governments in October. The move has been opposed by the United Nations? refugee agency and aid groups who fear for the safety of the ethnic minority. The Rohingya themselves have also said they are terrified of returning to the Buddhist-majority country. Some have gone into hiding. "It is not happening tomorrow as nobody wants to go back," Reuters news agency quoted one anonymous source as saying. Bangladesh has deployed the army to the refugee camps ahead of the expulsion in a move Human Rights Watch said underlined the refugees? fear of return. ?Genocidal intent?: UN says Myanmar military leaders must face prosecution "The Bangladesh government will be stunned to see how quickly interntional opinion turns against it if it starts sending unwilling Rohingya refugees back into harm?s way in Myanmar," Bill Frelick, the group?s refugee rights director, said in a statement..."
Source/publisher: Al Jazeera
Date of publication: 2018-11-15
Date of entry/update: 2018-11-15
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Title: Rohingya in Bangladesh will not be forced back to Myanmar (video)
Description: "It comes as a huge relief for hundreds of thousands of Muslim-majority Rohingya who fled Myanmar as Bangladesh has announced that they will not be forcibly repatriated. Bangladesh was scheduled to send back an initial group of 2,260 Rohingya from 485 families on Thursday, in line with a bilateral agreement between the two governments in October. Many refugees had refused to return, fearing for their safety. The United Nations had urged Bangladesh not to send people back under the current circumstances. Al Jazeera?s Mohammed Jamjoom reports from Cox?s Bazar."
Source/publisher: Al Jazeera
Date of publication: 2018-11-15
Date of entry/update: 2018-11-15
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Title: Bangladesh-Myanmar: The Danger of Forced Rohingya Repatriation
Description: "Bangladesh is poised to begin returning several thousand Rohingya refugees to Myanmar. This repatriation is unlikely to be voluntary and should not proceed. It would not only violate Bangladesh?s international legal obligations and jeopardise the safety of the refugees, but risks triggering violence and greater instability on both sides of the border. Bangladesh and Myanmar should immediately halt the plan. The UN, including the secretary-general?s special envoy and the UN refugee agency,should continue to firmly oppose it, both in public and in private, and establish a process whereby Rohingya refugees are consulted about their future. The U.S., European Union (EU), Australia, Canada and others also should press Bangladesh and Myanmar to halt the returns and instead work to create conditions conducive to voluntary repatriation; those countries? participation at the 11-15 November ASEAN summits in Singapore is an opportunity to do so..."
Source/publisher: International Crisis Group (Asia Briefing N°153)
Date of publication: 2018-11-12
Date of entry/update: 2018-11-13
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Title: Commentary: Why the Rohingya refugees should not be repatriated yet
Description: "NEW DELHI: Last month, Bangladesh and Myanmar announced the signing of a new agreement to begin the repatriation of Rohingya refugees from their makeshift camps in Cox?s Bazar to Rakhine State within the coming weeks. Close to 720,000 Rohingya had fled to Bangladesh since last year August. So far, Myanmar has cleared only 4,600 names for return from the original list of more than 8,000 from Dhaka. While announcing the latest return deal, Myanmar?s foreign secretary, Myint Thu said there was a ?very concrete plan” to start the return process ?at the earliest possible date” and framed the decision as a show of ?political will, flexibility, and accommodation”. His Bangladeshi counterpart, Shahidul Haque, said that repatriation should begin mid-November..."
Source/publisher: Channel Newsasia (CNA)
Date of publication: 2018-11-12
Date of entry/update: 2018-11-13
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Title: Oxfam urges Myanmar, Bangladesh to halt Rohingya repatriation
Description: "Description: Oxfam and dozens of NGOs warn that the return of Rohingya refugees to Bangladesh would be dangerous and premature..." Video: 6 minutes and 49 seconds
Source/publisher: Global News
Date of publication: 2018-11-11
Date of entry/update: 2018-11-13
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Title: Rohingya fears grow as refugees face forcible return to Myanmar
Description: "The governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar are to push ahead with the repatriation of thousands of Rohingya this week, despite objections by the UN, and against the wishes of the refugees, who spoke of being ?terrified” at being sent back. Last week fear gripped the camps in Cox?s Bazar in Bangladesh at the news that, without their consent, 4,355 people had been placed on a list of Rohingya approved for return by Myanmar. The first repatriations are due from Thursday, but not everyone who is on the list has been informed and it is unclear how it was compiled..."
Source/publisher: "The Guardian"
Date of publication: 2018-11-11
Date of entry/update: 2018-11-13
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Title: Statement by UN High Commissioner for Refugees on the repatriation of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar
Description: "UNHCR supports the voluntary and sustainable repatriation of Rohingya refugees in safety and in dignity to their places of origin or choice, and will work with all parties towards this goal. The repatriation of refugees is premised upon the free and informed decision by refugees, on an individual basis, to return. Refugee returns should only take place at their freely expressed wish based on relevant and reliable knowledge of the conditions within the country of origin and the area of return. The best way to provide that knowledge to Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh is to allow them to go and see the conditions in Myanmar for themselves. Before making a choice of whether to return or not, the refugees reportedly verified by Myanmar as having the right to return should be allowed to visit their places of origin in Rakhine State, or other places to which they might choose to return, so that they themselves can make an independent assessment of whether they feel they can return there in safety and dignity. Myanmar authorities should allow these refugees to undertake such go-and-see visits without prejudice to their right to return at a later date, if indeed the refugees decide after the visits that the current conditions in Rakhine State would not allow them to return in safety and dignity..."
Source/publisher: UNHCR - UN High Commissioner for Refugees
Date of publication: 2018-11-11
Date of entry/update: 2018-11-13
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Title: Google search results for rohingya repatriation november 2018
Description: About 928,000 results (November 2018)
Date of entry/update: 2018-11-12
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Title: Rohingyas to be repatriated despite UN genocide warning
Description: "Bangladesh and Myanmar to start returning refugees days after warning of continuing genocide against Muslims...Myanmar and Bangladesh have agreed to start the repatriation of Rohingya refugees next month, less than a week after UN investigators warned that a genocide against the Muslim minority was continuing. More than 720,000 of Myanmar?s stateless Rohingya people fled a military crackdown in August last year, taking shelter in crowded camps in Bangladesh and bringing with them harrowing tales of rape, murder and arson. At a meeting of the Bangladeshi foreign secretary, Shahidul Haque, and his Burmese counterpart, Myint Thu, on Tuesday, the two countries drew up a ?very concrete plan” to start repatriations..."
Source/publisher: "The Guardian"
Date of publication: 2018-10-30
Date of entry/update: 2018-10-31
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Title: ?Primitive people?: the untold story of UNHCR?s historical engagement with Rohingya refugees
Description: "?These are primitive people. At the end of the day they will go where they are told to go.? These were the words of a senior UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) staff member in 1993, during a meeting convened to discuss potential solutions for the 250,000 Rohingya refugees who had recently fled from Myanmar to Bangladesh. The dismissive tone of the statement was emblematic of the organisation?s engagement with the Rohingya, which for many years showed limited respect for their rights and a readiness to abandon UNHCR?s own protection principles. Drawing on previously unpublished material from the UNHCR archives, this article shows how, in both the 1970s and 1990s, large numbers of Rohingya refugees were returned to Myanmar in a manner that was premature, involuntary and unsafe. The article concludes by asking whether a similar scenario could develop in relation to the 700,000 Rohingya refugees who fled to Bangladesh in the second half of 2017..."
Source/publisher: "Humanitarian Exchange Magazine" - The Humanitarian Practice Network (HPN)
Date of publication: 2018-09-30
Date of entry/update: 2018-10-25
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Title: We Must Not Repeat the Shameful History of Returning Rohingya Refugees
Description: "As Rohingya refugees poured out of Myanmar into Bangladesh last fall, the two countries were already negotiating mass returns. This wouldn?t be the first premature repatriation of Rohingya, but today it reflects a trend of unsafe returns, says refugee expert Jeff Crisp...As demonstrated by the earlier experience of the Rohingya, the principle of voluntary and safe repatriation has never been universally respected, and it would be misleading to suggest these developments are entirely new. Even so, the scale and frequency of involuntary refugee returns in recent years suggest that a fundamental norm of refugee protection is now being challenged as never before...."
Source/publisher: "Refugees Deeply"
Date of publication: 2018-01-17
Date of entry/update: 2018-10-25
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Title: Myanmar?s delaying tactics blocking Rohingya return - Bangladesh PM
Description: "NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bangladesh?s leader accused neighboring Myanmar of finding new excuses to delay the return of more than 700,000 Rohingya who were forced across the border over the past year, and said in an interview late Tuesday that under no circumstance would the refugees remain permanently in her already crowded country. ?I already have 160 million people in my country,” Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said, when asked whether Bangladesh would be willing to walk back its policy against permanent integration. ?I can?t take any other burden. I can?t take it. My country cannot bear.” ..."
Source/publisher: Reuters
Date of publication: 2018-09-26
Date of entry/update: 2018-09-29
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Title: Documentation of Atrocities in Northern Rakhine State
Description: The document was originally completed in August 2018 but issued on 24 September 2018...EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: "The Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), with funding support from the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL), conducted a survey in spring 2018 of the firsthand experiences of 1,024 Rohingya refugees in Cox?s Bazar District, Bangladesh. The goal of the survey was to document atrocities committed against residents in Burma?s northern Rakhine State during the course of violence in the previous two years. The survey used a representative sample of refugee camp populations to provide insights into the violence they witnessed. Any hearsay testimony was not recorded. Survey results reveal the pattern of events refugees experienced. There may be cases when multiple refugees reported witnessing the same event, so the percentages from this survey should not be extrapolated to come up with a definitive overall number of events. The National GeospatialIntelligence Agency (NGA) worked with INR to map and analyze the resulting data (see Map 1). The results of the survey show that the vast majority of Rohingya refugees experienced or directly witnessed extreme violence and the destruction of their homes. They identified the Burmese military as a perpetrator in most cases. • Most witnessed a killing, two-thirds witnessed an injury, and half witnessed sexual violence (see Figure 1). • Rohingya identified the Burmese military as a perpetrator in 84% of the killings or injuries they witnessed. • Three-quarters say they saw members of the army kill someone; the same proportion say they witnessed the army destroying huts or whole villages. Police, unidentified security forces, and armed civilians carried out the rest of the observed killings. • One-fifth of all respondents witnessed a mass-casualty event of killings or injuries (either in their villages or as they fled) with more than 100 victims. 1 The two main phases of violence—the first in October 2016 and the second beginning in August 2017—followed attacks against Burmese security forces by the Rohingya insurgent group Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA). The vast majority of reported incidents against Rohingya took place from August to October 2017. The survey shows that the military, which used the ARSA attacks to justify its so-called counterinsurgency operations in northern Rakhine State, targeted civilians indiscriminately and often with extreme brutality. • Forty-five percent of refugees witnessed a rape, and the majority of rapes witnessed were committed, in whole or in part, by the army. Overall, nearly 40% of refugees saw a rape committed by members of the Burmese security services—either police or military— including 18% who saw them commit a gang rape. • Members of the security services, as well as non-Rohingya civilians in some cases, targeted children and pregnant women. • Those who were left behind because they were elderly, sick, or otherwise infirm were frequently found dead when their relatives returned to check on them. The survey reveals that the recent violence in northern Rakhine State was extreme, large-scale, widespread, and seemingly geared toward both terrorizing the population and driving out the Rohingya residents. The scope and scale of the military?s operations indicate they were wellplanned and coordinated. In some areas, perpetrators used tactics that resulted in mass casualties, for example, locking people in houses to burn them, fencing off entire villages before shooting into the crowd, or sinking boats full of hundreds of fleeing Rohingya."
Source/publisher: US Dept. of State
Date of publication: 2018-07-31
Date of entry/update: 2018-09-28
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Title: FUTURES IN THE BALANCE: BUILDING HOPE FOR A GENERATION OF ROHINGYA CHILDREN
Description: FOREWORD: "One year ago this week, a startled international community watched a dramatic humanitarian crisis unfold on the north-eastern edge of the Bay of Bengal. In a matter of weeks, hundreds of thousands of desperate and terrorized people ? 60 per cent of them children ? poured across the border from Myanmar into Bangladesh, bringing with them accounts of the unspeakable violence and brutality that had forced them to fl ee. Twelve months on, memories of those experiences remain raw among the roughly one million Rohingya refugees ? including many from previous cross-border infl uxes ? who live in cramped and primitive shelters inside the congested and often insanitary camps of Cox?s Bazar. The unstinting support of local Bangladeshi communities, and a multi-national aid effort led by the Government, has averted the more dire fears for the Rohingyas? safety and well-being. Disease outbreaks have been largely kept at bay and famine has been averted. Safe water, sanitation, nutrition and other basic services have been installed, even if large gaps remain. For about one third of children up to the age of 14, a network of learning centres and child-friendly spaces offer a chance to begin healing, and a respite from their harsh surroundings. A semblance of normality has descended on the camps and the neighbouring communities, but it?s a normality that cannot last indefi nitely. The refugees live on a knife-edge, gripped by uncertainty about their future, and still traumatized by their experiences in Myanmar. Their homes ? many built on precarious hillsides -- risk being washed away by the monsoon rain, or destroyed by a cyclone. A cholera or measles epidemic remains a real possibility. With no end in sight to their bleak exile, despair and hopelessness are growing among the refugees, alongside a fatalism about what the future has in store. Older children and adolescents who are deprived of opportunities to learn or make a living, are at real risk of becoming a ?lost generation”, ready prey to traffi ckers and those who would exploit them for political or other ends. This UNICEF Child Alert calls for a concerted effort to build a new foundation for the rights and opportunities of Rohingya children over the longer term. By taking resolute action together, we ? the international community as well as the Governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar ? can give Rohingya children?s lives a stability and sense of hope that is currently absent. At the same time, we can strengthen the solidarity between Rohingya children and those living in host communities (whose situation is often not much better than that of the refugees). Central to our call is the promise of a quality, multi-lingual education, built around the acquisition of essential life-skills, and competencies in literacy, language and numeracy. Of course, a lasting solution to the plight of the Rohingya requires tackling the root causes of the Rohingya crisis inside Myanmar itself. The refugees cannot and will not agree to return home until the discrimination and violence that they have experienced for decades are ended, until their basic rights -- to citizenship, free movement, health, education, and jobs ? have been established, and their property restored. But it is not only in Myanmar that diffi cult choices are needed. As our Call to Action makes clear, Bangladesh and the international community have critical responsibilities to address. This is a crisis that will require a complex, multilayered approach underpinned by long-term fi nancial resources and infrastructural development, and bold political will. Given the untenable situation in which the refugees fi nd themselves, and its implications for both countries, this is a challenge that must be addressed, and rapidly. The Rohingya ? and their children especially ? demand and deserve nothing less."
Source/publisher: UNICEF
Date of publication: 2018-07-31
Date of entry/update: 2018-09-03
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Title: UNHCR and UNDP sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Myanmar to support the creation of conditions for the return of refugees from Bangladesh
Source/publisher: UNHCR
Date of publication: 2018-06-06
Date of entry/update: 2018-09-01
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Title: Rohingya: Unpeopled. Genocide survivours are invited back to their homeland (video)
Description: "A long scar from a burn runs across Momtay Begum?s temple. She was beaten, raped and set on fire by Myanmar soldiers, who swept into her village of Tula Toli in Rakhine State in August 2017. Momtay made it out alive from what the UN later branded a ?textbook example of ethnic cleansing.” After four days on the run, she and her only surviving daughter reached the border with Bangladesh. They now live in the Cox?s Bazar district of Bangladesh along with nearly 700,000 Rohingya, who fled the massacres and violence the Myanmar military unleashed on the mainly Muslim ethnic minority. Many displaced Rohingya recount harrowing experiences that echo Montay?s story. However, the government continues to deny that massive slaughter even took place, claiming the troops targeted only Muslim insurgents, not civilians. Rakhine residents repeat the official narrative, saying Muslims burned their villages before fleeing and describing atrocities the Rohingya militants carried out. Follow RTD?s Natalia Karachkova, as she explores the roots of the Rohingya crisis. She goes to Cox?s Bazar, where Muslim refugees relay their stories of persecution and escape from the country they called home. Meanwhile, the Rakhine residents she meets on a government-escorted press tour share a different account of what happened."
Source/publisher: RT Documentary (RTD)
Date of publication: 2018-07-04
Date of entry/update: 2018-08-22
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Title: Myanmar: Security Forces Torture Rohingya Returnees - Refugees Arrested, Mistreated as Accused Militants
Description: "Myanmar authorities have tortured and imprisoned Rohingya refugees who returned to Rakhine State from Bangladesh, Human Rights Watch said today. The mistreatment reinforces the need for international protection, including United Nations monitors on the ground, before Rohingya will be able to return safely to Myanmar. ?The torture of Rohingya returnees puts the lie to Myanmar government promises that refugees who return will be safe and protected,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director. ?Despite Myanmar?s rhetoric guaranteeing a safe and dignified return, the reality is that Rohingya who go back still face the persecution and abuses they were forced to flee.”
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 2018-08-21
Date of entry/update: 2018-08-21
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Title: ?Bangladesh is Not My Country” Stateless Rohingya Refugees Expelled from Myanmar
Description: Table of Contents: Map ... Summary? Recommendations: To the Government of Bangladesh; To the Government of Myanmar; To Humanitarian Agencies ; To the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) ; To Donor Governments ; To ASEAN Member States ... I. Background: A History of Hostility; II. An Ad Hoc Response to a Dangerous Situation; Placement of the Mega Camp: Topography ; Population Density ; Climate ; International ? III. A Highly Traumatized Refugee Population ? IV. Refugees at Risk: Physical Security; Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH); Food and Fuel; Health; Older Refugees and Refugees with Disabilities? V. Legal Protection: Respect for Refugee Rights: Freedom of Movement ... VI. Repatriation: Obstacles to the Right of Return ? VI. Where to Move the Refugees? Bhasan Char; Accessible and Relatively Safe Land in Ukhiya Subdistrict ? VII. Beyond the Present Emergency, Looking Forward: Education; Livelihoods ? Acknowledgments ... Appendix... Bangladesh Ministry of Foreign Affairs Response to HRW Questions
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 2018-07-31
Date of entry/update: 2018-08-08
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Title: Investigative Report of Rohingya Refugee Camps in Bangladesh - Rohingya Refugees Face Serious Human Rights Violations in Myanmar and Bangladesh Refugee Camps
Description: Table of Contents: I. Introduction... II. Background: a. Documented Violations; b. Myanmar Government Actions; c. International Community Reactions and Recommendations ... III. Methodology ... IV. Findings & Legal Implications ... a. Situation Inside Myanmar ... b. Situation In Refugee Camps ... Recommendations ..... Specifically, the policy requiring the Rohingya to produce official documentation upon repatriation will likely hamper the Rohingya?s ability to return to their homes in Myanmar, due to their lack of citizenship status, noted above. HRN?s interviews with the Rohingya refugees confirmed the possibility that many Rohingya may be forced to return to Myanmar against the ir volition. For example, the 55 - year - old woman, the 29 - year - old man, and the 70 - year - old man, all expressed reluctance to return to Myanmar unless they had guarantees of certain rights (i.e. citizenship, living freely outside of a camp, and citizenship wi th fundamental rights, respectively). The 37 - year - old man and the 35 - year - old man both mentioned concern for lack of citizenship as a reason they do not want to return to Myanmar. Given the interviewees? explicit expressions of fear and reluctance to retur n to Myanmar, HRN is skeptical that a repatriation process that does not provide comprehensive protection of the Rohingya rights would be in compliance with international legal standards regarding the treatment of refugees. V. Recommendations Human Rights Now is gravely concerned with the allegations of systematic and gross violations of human rights and humanitarian law directed against Rohingya in Myanmar and with the urgency of the situation of displaced Rohingya. The Burmese military?s atrocities in Rak hine S tate include summary executions, rape , expulsion and the mass burning of villages. These abuses amount to crimes against humanity and resulted in widespread deaths and the displacement of over 650 , 000 Rohingya..."
Source/publisher: Human Rights Now
Date of publication: 2018-04-12
Date of entry/update: 2018-08-06
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Title: The Long Haul Ahead for Myanmar?s Rohingya Refugee Crisis
Description: Executive Summary: "In the last eight months, nearly 700,000 Rohingya have fled indiscriminate and brutal operations by Myanmar?s military in northern Rakhine State to Bangladesh, joining tens of thousands who left earlier in 2017, and many more from previous years. The two countries have agreed upon a procedural framework for voluntary repatriation, but no Rohingya have returned and small numbers continue to flee. The burden of the crisis may have shifted to Bangladesh, but the onus of responsibility remains squarely on Myanmar. The world must pursue accountability for crimes committed and press the government to create the conditions for voluntary repatriation. The tragic reality, however, is that the vast majority of refugees are unlikely to return in the foreseeable future, however much international opprobrium Myanmar faces. Planning for the refugees should proceed on that assumption, while efforts continue to protect those Rohingya who remain in Myanmar. Failing to develop long-term plans for the refugees would not only risk that hundreds of thousands of people remain in limbo. It could also lead the status quo to morph in dangerous ways. For now, host communities and political elites in Bangladesh largely sympathise with the refugees, but if the sentiments of either were to shift ? after the December elections, for example, or due to prolonged negative impacts on host communities ? the Rohingya might face pressure to return against their will or move into more isolated camps in Bangladesh, such as those the Bangladeshi government is building on remote Bhasan island. Such developments could prompt instability or violence on either side of the border ? due to organised resistance by refugees to relocation or premature repatriation, communal violence against returning refugees, or renewed ARSA mobilisation in Rakhine State. The social, political and strategic implications of this crisis for Bangladesh are complex at all levels. The host communities ? neglected by Dhaka at the best of times ? are already feeling the strain. While there is no disagreement in political and policy circles about the intractability of the crisis, there is widespread reluctance to acknowledge it, as it would reflect badly on the Bangladeshi government?s ability to protect its sovereignty and could be interpreted as tacit acceptance of ethnic cleansing. Public sympathy for the Rohingya will not last forever, and the current situation is likely to evolve in unpredictable ways. After the December elections, the next government (likely to be the same as the present one) will have to make some difficult longer-term decisions. This subject will be covered in detail in a forthcoming report. Myanmar has constructed some of the infrastructure that could support a limited return, in the form of heavily guarded processing and holding camps. But it has done little if anything to create conditions on the ground that would give refugees, who fled abuses that likely constitute crimes against humanity, and who continue to be fearful and traumatised, the confidence to go back. It has bulldozed many burned Rohingya villages, is building new roads, power lines and security infrastructure across northern Rakhine State, and has promoted or allowed the expansion of existing villages and construction of new settlements inhabited by other ethnicities. The refugees? return to their homes and lands thus is not only increasingly unlikely, but also becoming impossible in practice. Ethnic Rakhine political leaders and local The Long Haul Ahead for Myanmar?s Rohingya Refugee Crisis Crisis Group Asia Report N°296, 16 May 2018 Page ii communities are staunchly opposed to repatriation, and the government has done little to mitigate their resistance (indeed, its own relations with ethnic Rakhine have soured). Moreover, hostility toward the Rohingya across Myanmar political elites and in society more broadly remains firmly entrenched. Most refugees express no intention to go to third countries, and in any case their opportunities to do so are likely to remain scarce. They want to return home. Many refugees hope that the unprecedented international attention their plight has received over the past months could help them achieve that, but they are resigned to staying for an extended period in Bangladesh. The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army militant group has significant networks of members and supporters in the Bangladesh camps, and appears determined to remain relevant as an insurgent and political force. The extent to which it can do so is uncertain. It launched a small cross-border attack on a Myanmar army convoy on 5 January, but it has conducted no actions since then. Whether it can leverage widespread disaffection and the significant sympathy it still enjoys in the camps into political authority and sustain cross-border attacks remains to be seen. There is no evidence it has established links to transnational groups like ISIS or al-Qaeda. Indeed, viewing the situation in the camps through a counter-terrorism lens would be unhelpful, as the Bangladeshi authorities appear to recognise. Improving the situation in northern Rakhine State, where 100,000-150,000 Rohingya still live (and on some estimates as many as 250,000), is not primarily a development challenge. It depends on the Myanmar government and security forces changing course. For the Rohingya in northern Rakhine, particularly those in rural areas, life is becoming increasingly untenable. Curfews, checkpoints and movement restrictions mean that they cannot gain access to farms, fishing grounds, markets, day labour opportunities or social services. These people say they do not want to leave, but if the restrictions are not urgently eased, many may decide they have no other choice. To prevent further deterioration, the international community should continue pushing the government to allow unfettered United Nations and aid agency access to northern Rakhine. They should press for accountability for crimes committed by the security forces and others. It is also vital to ensure that the government changes conditions in northern Rakhine, to improve the prospects of an eventual refugee return, and more urgently to stabilise the situation of the Rohingya who remain, so as to prevent a further exodus. The recent appointment of a UN special envoy for Myanmar, combined with continued scrutiny and engagement from the Security Council ? which just completed a visit to Bangladesh and Myanmar ? can hopefully result in some progress on these issues. The recent statement from State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi?s office promising improved relations with the UN, together with the appointment of a new president, may open space for changes in the government?s approach. Realistically, however, the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya who have fled to Bangladesh appear unlikely to return any time soon. Donors should prepare for the long haul. They should not only fund the humanitarian operation but also invest in the development of Cox?s Bazar district, where the refugees currently reside, to reduce the burden on host communities, minimise risks that local sentiment turns against refugees and create an environment more amenable to their integration. The The Long Haul Ahead for Myanmar?s Rohingya Refugee Crisis Crisis Group Asia Report N°296, 16 May 2018 Page iii Bangladeshi government currently resists such an approach, given the domestic political costs of acknowledging that the Rohingya will remain indefinitely. Similarly, many Western governments are understandably loath to acknowledge explicitly that prospects of the refugees? return are slim. But sustained political discussions on longterm solutions between the government, donors and multilateral institutions are vital. Failing to develop plans for the Rohingya?s prolonged stay i
Source/publisher: International Crisis Group (Asia Report N°296)
Date of publication: 2018-05-16
Date of entry/update: 2018-07-15
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Title: The Long Haul Ahead for Myanmar?s Rohingya Refugee Crisis မန်မာနိုင်ငံ၏ ရိုဟင်ဂျာဒုက္ခသည် ပြဿနာအတွက် ရှေ့ တွင် ရုန်းကန်ရမည့် ခရ
Description: အဓိကအကြောင်းအရာများ အကျဉ်းချုပ် : " လွန်ခဲ့သောရှစ်လအတွင်း ရခိုင်ပြည်နယ်မြောက်ပိုင်းတွင် မြန်မာ့တပ်မတော်၏ လက်လွတ် စပယ် ရက်စက်ကြမ်းတမ်းသော စစ်ဆင်ရေးများကြောင့် ရိုဟင်ဂျာ ၇၀၀,၀၀၀ နီးပါးခန့် ဘ င်္ဂလားဒေ့ရှ်နိုင်ငံဖက်သို့ ထွက်ပြေးခဲ့ပြီး ၂၀၁၇ အစောပိုင်းနှင့် ယခင့်ယခင်နှစ်များက ထွက် ပြေးသွားနှင့်သူ ရိုဟင်ဂျာ ထောင်ပေါင်းများစွာ ရှိရာသို့ သွားရောက် ခိုလှုံနေထိုင်ခဲ့ကြသည်။ နှစ်နိုင်ငံသည် ဆန္ဒအလျောက် နေရပ်ပြန်ပို့ခြင်းအတွက် လုပ်ထုံးလုပ်နည်းမူဘောင်ကို သ ဘောတူခဲ့ကြသော်လည်း မည်သည့်ရိုဟင်ဂျာမှ ပြန်မသွားသည့်အပြင် အရေအတွက် အနည်း ငယ်မှာ ဆက်လက်ထွက်ပြေးနေဆဲဖြစ်သည်။ ယင်းပြဿနာ၏ ဝန်ထုပ်ဝန်ပိုးသည် ဘင်္ဂလား ဒေ့ရှ်အပေါ်သို့ ကူးပြောင်းသွားသော်လည်း တာဝန်ယူရမည့် ဝတ္တရားသည် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံအပေါ် တွင် လုံးလုံးလျားလျားရှိနေသည်။ ကျူးလွန်ခဲ့သော ရာဇဝတ်မှုများအပေါ် တာဝန်ခံမှုရှိစေ ရန်နှင့် ဆန္ဒအလျောက် နေရပ်ပြန်နိုင်မည့် အခြေအနေများကို ဖန်တီးရန် အစိုးရအား ဖိ အားပေးရေးအတွက် နိုင်ငံတကာက တစိုက်မတ်မတ် လုပ်ဆောင်ရမည်ဖြစ်သည်။ သို့ရာတွင် ဝမ်းနည်းဖွယ်အမှန်တရားမှာ ကြိုတင်မှန်းဆနိုင်သည့် အနာဂတ်ကာလအတွင်းတော့ ဒုက္ခ သည် အမြောက်အများ အိမ်ပြန်ကြရန် မဖြစ်နိုင်သေးခြင်းဖြစ်ပြီး ထိုအချက်သည် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ ရင်ဆိုင်နေရသော နိုင်ငံတကာက ပြင်းထန်စွာဝေဖန်နေမှု၏ အကြောင်းဖြစ်သည်။ ဒုက္ခသည် များအတွက် အစီအစဉ်ရေးဆွဲမှုများသည် အလျင်အမြန် နေရပ်ပြန်ရေးဟူသော ယူဆချက် အပေါ်တွင် အခြေခံလုပ်ဆောင်ရမည်ဖြစ်သလို မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတွင် ကျန်ရှိနေသော ရိုဟင်ဂျာ များကိုလည်း ဆက်လက် အကာအကွယ်ပေးရန် ကြိုးပမ်းရမည်ဖြစ်သည်။ ဒုက္ခသည်များအတွက် ရေရှည်အစီအစဉ်များ လုပ်ဆောင်ရန် ပျက်ကွက်မှုကြောင့် သိန်းချီသော လူအများသည် မရေမရာအခြေအနေတွင် ဆက်လက်နေထိုင်ရရန် အန္တရာယ် ရှိသည့်အပြင် လက်ရှိအခြေအနေကို အန္တရာယ်ကြီးမားသည့် လမ်းကြောင်းသို့ ဦးတည် သွားစေနိုင်သည်။ လောလောဆယ်တွင် ဘင်္ဂလားဒေ့ရှ်မှ အိမ်ရှင်အသိုင်းအဝိုင်းများနှင့် နိုင်ငံ ရေးအပေါ်လွှာမှသူများက ဒုက္ခသည်များအပေါ် ကြီးကြီးမားမား ဂရုဏာသက်နေကြသော် လည်း ဒီဇင်ဘာလရွေးကောက်ပွဲအပြီး စိတ်သဘောထားပြောင်းလဲသွားခဲ့လျှင်ဖြစ်စေ၊ အိမ် ရှင်အသိုင်းအဝိုင်းများအပေါ် ရေရှည်ဆိုးကျိုးသက်ရောက်မှုများ ရှိလာလျှင်ဖြစ်စေ ရိုဟင်ဂျာ တို့သည် ၎င်းတို့ဆန္ဒနှင့် ဆန့်ကျင်ကာ နေရပ်ပြန်ရန် ဖိအားပေးမှုကို ရင်ဆိုင်ရခြင်း သို့မဟုတ် ဝေးလံသော ဘာဆန် (Bhasan) ကျွန်းတွင် ဘင်္ဂလားဒေ့ရှ်အစိုးရက တည်ဆောက်ထား သော စခန်းများကဲ့သို့သော လူအများနှင့်ဝေးရာ စခန်းများသို့ ရွှေ့ပြောင်းရခြင်းတို့ ဖြစ်လာ နိုင်သည်။ ယင်းကဲ့သို့ ဖြစ်ရပ်များသည် ပြန်လည်နေရာချထားခြင်း သို့မဟုတ် အချိန်မတန်ခင် နေရပ်ပြန်ပို့ခြင်းကို ဒုက္ခသည်များက စနစ်တကျ ဆန့်ကျင်ခြင်း၊ ပြန်သွားသော ဒုက္ခသည် များနှင့် လူအုပ်စုများကြားအကြမ်းဖက်မှုများဖြစ်ပွားခြင်း သို့မဟုတ် ရခိုင်ပြည်နယ်တွင် ARSA အတွက် The Long Haul Ahead for Myanmar?s Rohingya Refugee Crisis Crisis Group Asia Report N°296, 16 May 2018 Page ii အသစ်တဖန်စည်းရုံးမှု ထပ်မံပေါ်ပေါက်ခြင်းတို့ကြောင့် နယ်စပ်၏ နှစ်ဖက်စလုံးတွင် မတည်ငြိမ်မှု သို့မဟုတ် အကြမ်းဖက်မှုများကို ဖြစ်ပေါ်စေနိုင်သည်။ ဘင်္ဂလားဒေ့ရှ်နိုင်ငံအပေါ် ထိုပြဿနာ၏ လူမှုရေးဆိုင်ရာ၊ နိုင်ငံရေးဆိုင်ရာ၊ မဟာ ဗျူဟာမြောက် အကျိုးဆက်များသည် အဆင့်တိုင်းတွင် ရှုတ်ထွေးနေသည်။ ပုံမှန်အခြေအ နေမှာပင် ဒက္ကားအာဏာပိုင်များ၏ လစ်လျူရှုခြင်းကို ခံနေရသော အိမ်ရှင်အသိုင်းအဝိုင်းများ သည် ဒဏ်ပိမှုကို ခံစားနေကြရသည်။ နိုင်ငံရေးနှင့် မူဝါဒချမှတ်သူမျ??
Source/publisher: International Crisis Group (Asia Report N°296)
Date of publication: 2018-05-16
Date of entry/update: 2018-07-15
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Title: Joint Bangladesh/UNHCR verification of Rohingya refugees gets underway
Description: This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Charlie Yaxley ? to whom quoted text may be attributed ? at today?s press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, 06 Jul...The Government of Bangladesh and UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, have launched a joint verification exercise for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. The exercise, which began at the end of June and is expected to take up to six months to complete, will help consolidate a unified database for the purposes of protection, identity management, documentation, provision of assistance, population statistics and ultimately solutions for an estimated 900,000 refugees who have fled from Myanmar to Bangladesh in successive waves of forced displacement. Most of them - more than 720,000 ? fled since August last year in what was one of the largest and fastest growing refugee emergencies seen in the region in decades. The verification will play a key role in establishing refugees? identities and their declared places of origin in Myanmar. It will help preserve their right to voluntarily return home, if and when they decide that the conditions are right to do so. The verification exercise will also help to enhance the accuracy of data on refugees in Bangladesh, helping the Government and humanitarian partners enhance their understanding of specific needs amongst the refugee population, better plan and target delivery of protection and assistance and avoid duplication of services.
Source/publisher: UNHCR
Date of publication: 2018-07-06
Date of entry/update: 2018-07-09
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Title: Brides and Brothels: The Rohingya Trade (video)
Description: "Thousands of Rohingya girls continue to face sexual exploitation, forced marriage and trafficking in refugee camps.hey have survived rape and the slaughter of their families. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya girls and women fled Myanmar to escape a military crackdown... In Bangladesh?s refugee camps they thought they would be safe. But inside the tents that house almost a million Rohingya refugees, women and girls are being bought, sold and given away. Girls are being forced into marriage because relatives can?t afford to feed them, or are being lured to brothels with the promise of good jobs. We investigate the dangers still facing Rohingya women and meet the people seeking to exploit them" ...Rohingya, Bangladesh, Sexual assault, Asia, Myanmar
Source/publisher: Aljazeera (101 East)
Date of publication: 2018-03-08
Date of entry/update: 2018-03-09
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Title: A Continuing Humanitarian Tragedy: Ongoing Abuses and Oppression against the Rohingya in Myanmar
Description: "This policy brief draws on many years of Refugees International (RI) reporting on the Rohingya, as well as a recent RI mission to Bangladesh, where RI Senior Advocate for Human Rights Daniel Sullivan interviewed recent Rohingya arrivals who fled Myanmar beginning in late 2016. This policy brief is being issued in advance of a separate report on the situation of the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, which will be issued on July 13, 2017. RI is issuing this policy brief out of concern that Myanmar?s political reforms have not benefitted the Rohingya. In fact, the Government of Myanmar, and the military in particular, has engaged in, supported or condoned widespread, egregious, and systematic human rights abuses that may constitute crimes against humanity. And while we note statements by the government expressing an intention to address the well-being of all communities in Rakhine State (home to the vast majority of Rohingya in Myanmar), governments and international organizations must not confuse talk with action..."
Source/publisher: Refugees International
Date of publication: 2017-07-11
Date of entry/update: 2017-12-28
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Title: Myanmar?s Rohingya Crisis Enters a Dangerous New Phase
Description: Conclusion: "The actions of the Myanmar military in northern Rakhine State have created a major humanitarian catastrophe, a crisis for the country and a security threat to the region. It has strengthened an ugly strand of nationalism that will be long-lasting and could lead to the targeting of other minorities in the future. The crisis will define Myanmar in the eyes of much of the world for years to come, with hugely negative consequences across the board on trade, investment, tourism. The country has squandered its considerable reserves of global good-will just when it needed them most, as it was emerging from decades of isolation from the West. Myanmar has also put itself at much greater risk of attack by transnational jihadist groups. Priority long-term aims of balancing China?s geostrategic influence and economic dominance in the country and rehabilitating the military?s international image have been significantly set back. The abuses against the Rohingya minority have captured global public opinion, and the uncompromising posture of the government has exacerbated the situation. Western countries almost certainly will re-impose some of the sanctions that had been lifted in recent years. As they do so, they should acknowledge their inherent limitations and approach them in a manner that can maximise leverage while minimising collateral damage on Myanmar?s long-suffering population."
Source/publisher: International Crisis Group (ICG)
Date of publication: 2017-12-07
Date of entry/update: 2017-12-07
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Title: Myanmar: "My world is finished". Rohingya targeted in crimes against humanity in Myanmar
Description: "Early in the morning of 25 August 2017, members of a Rohingya armed group, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), attacked approximately 30 security force outposts in northern Rakhine State.1 In its response, the Myanmar Army, rather than targeting ARSA, launched an attack on the Rohingya population in northern Rakhine State as a whole. Often working with Border Guard Police (BGP) and local vigilantes, the military has carried out a campaign of violence that has been systematic, organized, and ruthless. In this briefing, Amnesty International presents evidence that the Myanmar military has killed at least hundreds of Rohingya women, men, and children; raped and perpetrated other forms of sexual violence on Rohingya women and girls; and carried out organized, targeted burning of entire Rohingya villages. This briefing builds on Amnesty International?s published findings since the crisis began, including on the Myanmar military?s use of anti-personnel landmines. In seven weeks, the relentless human rights violations have forced more than 520,000 Rohingya to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh. More cross the border daily. The attack on the Rohingya population has been both systematic and widespread, constituting serious human rights violations and crimes against humanity under international law (see text box below). The violations and crimes have been committed within a context of decades of systematic, state-led discrimination and persecution of the Rohingya population and occasional large-scale outbursts of violence. After ARSA attacks on security force outposts in October 2016, the Myanmar military carried out ?clearance operations” marked by widespread and systematic human rights violations, including unlawful killings, sexual violence and other forms of torture, enforced disappearances, and arbitrary arrests, which Amnesty International concluded may have amounted to crimes against humanity. The current campaign is an escalation, with the targeted burning of villages on a massive scale seemingly designed to push the Rohingya population in northern Rakhine State out of the country and make it incredibly difficult for them to return..."
Source/publisher: Amnesty International (ASA 16/7288/2017)
Date of publication: 2017-10-18
Date of entry/update: 2017-10-18
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Title: Burma: Military Massacres Dozens in Rohingya Village. Soldiers Shot, Stabbed Men and Boys in Maung Nu, Rakhine State
Description: "Since August 25, Burmese security forces have been carrying out a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State. Over half a million Rohingya have fled to neighboring Bangladesh to escape killings, arson, and other mass atrocities. The Rohingya, effectively denied citizenship under Burmese law, have faced decades of repression and discrimination. About 120,000 remain internally displaced from waves of violence in 2012 and 2016, in dire humanitarian conditions. Human Rights Watch researchers are reporting from the field on the crisis and its global impact.....Children?s Rights ...Refugees and Migrants ...Refugee Rights... Asylum Seekers ...Internally Displaced People... United Nations... Women?s Rights... Sexual Violence and Rape ...
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 2017-10-04
Date of entry/update: 2017-10-13
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Title: October 2017 Assessment Report: Undocumented Myanmar Nationals Influx to Cox?s Bazar, Bangladesh
Description: "The International Rescue Committee (IRC) and Relief International (RI) carried out a multi - sector assessment between September 29 and October 3, 2017 with the aim of better understanding the priority needs of the influx of Undocumented Myanmar Nationals (UMN) ? Rohingya ? in Bangladesh, as well as the locations in which assistance is most needed from the humanitarian community. To date, an estimated 515,000 UMN have fled violence in Myanmar for Bangladesh. 1 With the influx of additional people seeking asylum, the makeshift settlements have expanded and the needs of the displaced population has changed as the demographics shifted. Th is needs assessment focused on recently arrived UMN in the four most affected Upazilas in Cox?s Bazar: Ukhia, Teknaf, Ramu, and Cox?s Bazar Sadar. The assessment used the following methods: cluster sampling to survey families, key informant interviews with medical and education professionals (notably, among the displaced population), observations in selected surve y sites, health facility assessments, and a rapid market assessment in Cox?s Bazar. Of particular note, the findings include:  The three most commonly reported needs were money (73% ), household goods and non - food items (61%) and food (52%).  Over 3/4 of t he surveyed population relies on food security coping strategies, including opting for less preferred and less expensive foods (90%), reducing number of meals eaten in a day (69%), and restricting consumption by adults in order for small children to eat (68%). In addition, food consumption scores are extremely poor.  Nearly one - third of fami lies surveyed reported open defecation, and key informants noted the cleanliness of public latrines among major concerns in their areas of the sites surveyed.  Nearly half of all pregnant women have not received medical care for their pregnancies and 41% of families with pregnant women do not know where to go for medical care for pregnant women.  Observations during the assessment noted harmful practices in supporting survivors of gender - based violence (GBV) , including men working in women?s safe spaces, iden tifiable GBV sign posts without the necessary discretion required, and men exposing survivors to the community. 1 International Organization on Migration. Bangladesh Rohingya Crisis Response. Situation Report. October 5, 2017 . https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/IOM%20Bangladesh%20 - %20Rohingya%20Influx%20Situation%20Report%20 - %2005%20October%202017.pdf Assessment Report: Undocumented Myanmar Nationals Influx to Cox?s Bazar, Bangladesh October 7, 2017 BANGLADESH ASSESMENT REPORT | 2 The following report outlines the methodology as well as key findings and recommendations for the sectors of health, WASH, education, cash assistance , protection, food security, and shelter and NFIs..."
Source/publisher: International Rescue Committee (IRC), Relief International
Date of publication: 2017-10-10
Date of entry/update: 2017-10-12
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Type: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Mission report of OHCHR rapid response mission to Cox?s Bazar, Bangladesh 13-24 September 2017
Description: "...Credible information indicates that the Myanmar security forces purposely destroyed the property of the Rohingyas, scorched their dwellings and entire villages in northern Rakhine State, not only to drive the population out in droves but also to prevent the fleeing Rohingya victims from returning to their homes. The destruction by the Tatmadaw of houses, fields, food-stocks, crops, livestock and even trees, render the possibility of the Rohingya returning to normal lives and livelihoods in the future in northern Rakhine almost impossible. It also indicates an effort to effectively erase all signs of memorable landmarks in the geography of the Rohingya landscape and memory in such a way that a return to their lands would yield nothing but a desolate and unrecognizable terrain. Information received also indicates that the Myanmar security forces targeted teachers, the cultural and religious leadership, and other people of influence in the Rohingya community in an effort to diminish Rohingya history, culture and knowledge..."
Source/publisher: Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
Date of publication: 2017-10-11
Date of entry/update: 2017-10-11
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Type: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: The Hard Truth Is Rohingya Refugees Are Not Going Home
Description: "The only likely outcome of the crisis is the near-permanent presence of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya along the Bangladesh border...The harrowing scenes of human suffering on the Myanmar?Bangladesh border have provoked outpourings of sympathy and some firm statements by international politicians. At least half a million people have been brutally expelled from their homes and are now living in miserable conditions in muddy refugee camps and storm-drenched shanty towns. As the international community debates how to respond, it needs to take a clear-eyed view of the situation and recognise a brutal truth: the refugees are almost certainly not going home. Consequently, policymakers must not hide behind the fiction that Bangladesh is only temporarily hosting the refugees in preparation for their rapid return home. Over-optimistic assumptions now will lead to worse misery in the long term. Instead, the world needs to plan on the basis that Bangladesh will be hosting a very large and permanent refugee population..."
Bill Hayton
Source/publisher: Chatham House
Date of publication: 2017-10-06
Date of entry/update: 2017-10-07
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Title: Bangladesh Prime Minister condemns mine use in Myanmar, Mine Ban Treaty President calls for Fact-Finding Mission
Description: "Yesterday, 21 September 2017, at the United Nations General Assembly, Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister of Bangladesh, stated, ?We are horrified to see that the Myanmar authorities are laying landmines along their stretch of the border to prevent the Rohingya from returning to Myanmar. These people must be able to return to their homeland in safety, security and dignity.” "
bmban
Source/publisher: Mine Free Myanmar
Date of publication: 2017-09-23
Date of entry/update: 2017-10-06
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Title: Landmines on Myanmar/Burma-Bangladesh border & the flight of the Rohingya
Description: "...Some of the current wave of refugees have stepped on landmines during their attempts to leave Myanmar. International news agencies and human rights organizations have stated that they have witness testimony of new use of landmines by Myanmar?s Armed Forces along the NRS-Bangladesh border, and this has reportedly led to the issue being raised with Myanmar by Bangladesh authorities.,, UPDATE 19 SEPTEMBER 2017 "The ICBL/Landmine Monitor has verified that recent mine victims were from newly laid mines. On 28 of August, humanitarian workers providing relief to refugees camped on the Zero line of the border witnessed an Army truck arrive on the Myanmar side and unload three boxes from which soldiers took mines and placed in the ground. This continued on that day from 10am until 3pm. The mines were laid commencing in Taung Pyo Let Yar village tract of Maungdaw Township, which is adjacent to border pillar No. 31 in Bangladesh. This area demarcates the beginning of the land border between Bangladesh and Myanmar, as south of this area the border follows the Naf River.New mine use was witnessed along about a 20km stretch of the shared border between Burma and Banladesh. This stretch lies between the two main land crossing routes between Burma (Maungdaw township) and Bangladesh (Bandarban District). Subsequent to the daytime landmine operation, the Burmese Army brought trucks at night to continue laying mines, which could be seen under the lights by which they worked. Mine laying continued during the next few days, and was witnessed progressing along the border to the northeast in Mee Taik, Nga Yant Chaung, Hlaing Thi, Bauk Shu Hpweit and In Tu Lar townships. Mine laying was last seen continuing to the east of In Tu Lar township. All mines were laid on the eastern side of the border fence."
Source/publisher: Mine Free Myanmar
Date of publication: 2017-09-12
Date of entry/update: 2017-10-06
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Title: Rohingya Documentary: ?A boy with no name for a people with no identity?
Description: "Almost 400,000 Rohingya Muslims have now fled the violence in Myanmar in the last three weeks, including 240,000 children. Refugee camps across the border in Bangladesh are overflowing, and aid agencies fear it could get worse, warning up to a million could flee. Jonathan Miller has been in the region to see it all first hand."
Jonathan Miller (presenter)
Source/publisher: Channel 4 News
Date of publication: 2017-09-18
Date of entry/update: 2017-09-23
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Title: Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina, Speech At UNGA United Nations
Description: The first 7 minutes are abut the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh
Source/publisher: UN General Assembly
Date of publication: 2017-09-21
Date of entry/update: 2017-09-22
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Language: English (translation)
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Title: Myanmar Statement to the 72nd Session of the UN General Assembly
Description: "Henry Van Thio, Vice President of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, addresses the general debate of the 72nd Session of the General Assembly of the UN (New York, 19 - 25 September 2017)."...Mostly dealing with the current situation in Rakhine State and the Government?s responses
Source/publisher: United Nations General Assembly
Date of publication: 2017-09-20
Date of entry/update: 2017-09-21
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Title: Guterres: ?Pressure needed to stop Myanmar carnage? (video clip)
Description: "Myanmar?s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi has "a last chance" to halt an army offensive that has forced hundreds of thousands of the mainly Muslim Rohingya to flee abroad, the UN head has said. Antonio Guterres told the BBC?s Hardtalk programme that unless she acted now, "the tragedy will be absolutely horrible". The full interview with Antonio Gutteres will be broadcast on BBC World News on Monday, 18 September at 03:30, 08:30; 14:30 and 19:30 (all times GMT)..."
Source/publisher: BBC - Hardtalk (clip)
Date of publication: 2017-08-31
Date of entry/update: 2017-09-17
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Title: How Myanmar?s Buddhists view Rohingya crisis (video)
Description: + 2 more videos
Source/publisher: BBC
Date of publication: 2017-08-31
Date of entry/update: 2017-09-17
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Title: Suu Kyi has ?a last chance? to stop army offensive in Rohingya crisis: UN
Description: "UN chief Antonio Guterres says Myanmar?s de-facto head of state Aung San Suu Kyi has ?a last chance? to stop the military crackdown on Rakhine state and ease the Rohingya crisis, the BBC reports. "If she does not reverse the situation now, then I think the tragedy will be absolutely horrible, and unfortunately then I don?t see how this can be reversed in the future," the UN secretary general said during an interview with BBC?s HARDtalk programme. Guterres reiterated that the Rohingyas should be allowed to return to Myanmar. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra?ad al-Hussein has called the situation a ?textbook example of ethnic cleansing?..."
Source/publisher: Observer Online Desk
Date of publication: 2017-09-17
Date of entry/update: 2017-09-17
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Title: Myanmar: Scorched-earth campaign fuels ethnic cleansing of Rohingya from Rakhine State
Description: "More than 80 sites set ablaze in orchestrated campaign since 25 August... More than 370,000 Rohingya fled across border in less than three weeks... Testimonies show attacks were planned, deliberate and systematic... Amnesty International can reveal new evidence pointing to a mass-scale scorched-earth campaign across northern Rakhine State, where Myanmar security forces and vigilante mobs are burning down entire Rohingya villages and shooting people at random as they try to flee. The organization?s analysis of active fire-detection data, satellite imagery, photographs and videos from the ground, as well as interviews with dozens of eyewitnesses in Myanmar and across the border in Bangladesh, shows how an orchestrated campaign of systematic burnings has targeted Rohingya villages across northern Rakhine State for almost three weeks. ?The evidence is irrefutable ? the Myanmar security forces are setting northern Rakhine State ablaze in a targeted campaign to push the Rohingya people out of Myanmar. Make no mistake: this is ethnic cleansing,” said Tirana Hassan, Amnesty International?s Crisis Response Director..." Additional articles and images
Source/publisher: Amnesty International
Date of publication: 2017-09-14
Date of entry/update: 2017-09-15
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Title: Cyclone Brings Destruction to Burma Refugee Camps in Bangladesh
Description: "COX?S BAZAR, Bangladesh — A cyclone battered refugee camps in Bangladesh on Tuesday where hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims from Burma have taken refuge from violence at home, as authorities moved at least 350,000 Bangladeshis out of harm?s way. Cyclone Mora struck the island of Saint Martin and Teknaf in the coastal Bangladeshi district of Cox?s Bazar, where officials said some 200,000 people were evacuated to shelters. In Chittagong district, about 150,000 people were evacuated..."
Source/publisher: Reuters via "The Irrawaddy"
Date of publication: 2017-05-30
Date of entry/update: 2017-05-31
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Language: English
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Title: Non-Refoulement (Chapter 4 of "The Refugee in International Law")
Description: "The principle of non-refoulement prescribes, broadly, that no refugee should be returned to any country where he or she is likely to face persecution or torture. In this chapter, the scope of the principle is examined against the background of a number of recurring issues: the question of ?risk?; the personal scope of the principle, including its application to certain categories of asylum seekers such as stowaways or those arriving directly by boat; exceptions to the principle; extraterritorial application; extradition; and the ?contingent? application of the principle in situations of mass influx. The possible application of non-refoulement or an analogous principle of refuge to those outside the 1951 Convention/1967 Protocol is also considered, as is the relationship between non-refoulement and asylum. The analysis takes account of the increasing number of references to non- refoulement..." Extracted (with the author?s permission) from "The Refugee in International Law" by Guy S. Goodwin-Gill
Guy S. Goodwin-Gill
Source/publisher: OUP
Date of publication: 1995-11-30
Date of entry/update: 2015-05-23
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Language: English
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Title: Bangladesh proposes interning, repatriating up to 270K Rohingya to Myanmar
Description: "...Bangladesh has outlined proposals to intern thousands of undocumented Rohingya before repatriation to Myanmar, which they fled because of targeted violence and systematic discrimination, an official Foreign Ministry document obtained by Al Jazeera America reveals. An estimated 270,000 stateless Rohingya live in overcrowded camps, on the outskirts of already impoverished townships, finding shelter in locals? homes or using plastic sheeting and bamboo to construct huts in forests. An additional 30,000 have official status as refugees, living in U.N.-run camps but lack freedom of movement and the right to employment. Dhaka announced a new national strategy for the undocumented Rohingya in February but has refused to make the details public. An International Organization for Migration (IOM) official provided the Foreign Ministry?s summary of key proposals to Al Jazeera America. The document, dated March 31, 2014, reads, ?It has been suggested that a survey/listing of undocumented Myanmar nationals in Bangladesh would be carried out in order to identify them and determine their actual number and location ? The listed individuals would be housed in temporary shelters in different suitable locations pending their repatriation to Myanmar through regular diplomatic/consular channels.”..."
Nigel O'Connor
Source/publisher: Aljazeera
Date of publication: 2014-11-26
Date of entry/update: 2014-11-27
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Title: Rohingyas: Asylum seekers, not infiltrators
Description: "The Rohingya issue has received a fair degree of media coverage over the last few weeks. Admittedly, voices in favour of granting admission were far outweighed by those sharing the government?s position of denying admission. While the former based their case on moral and legal grounds, the latter?s case has been shaped by, what one may say, misguided notion of state interest and unsound understanding of the international human rights and refugee laws. Politicians, pundits and policy makers belonging to the latter group have put several reasons in justifying their position. This brief essay will examine the efficacy of their reasoning..."
C.R. Abrar
Source/publisher: "The Daily Star" (Bangladesh)
Date of publication: 2012-06-26
Date of entry/update: 2012-12-24
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Title: Bangladesh: The Silent Crisis
Description: Introduction: "The Rohingya ethnic minority of Burma are trapped between severe repression in their homeland and abuse in neighboring countries. Bangladesh has hosted hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas fleeing persecution for more than three decades, but at least 200,000 Rohingya refugees have no legal rights there. They live in squalor, receive very limited aid and are subject to arrest, extortion and detention. Unregistered refugee women and girls are particularly vulnerable to sexual and physical attacks. The international community must urge the Bangladeshi government to register undocumented refugees and improve protection for all vulnerable Rohingyas. Donor governments must also work to restart and increase resettlement of refugees to a third country and increase assistance for communities hosting refugees."
Lynn Yoshikawa, Melanie Teff
Source/publisher: Refugees International
Date of publication: 2011-04-19
Date of entry/update: 2011-05-03
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Language: English
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Title: UNHCR Global Report 2000: Bangladesh at a glance
Description: Maps, photos, tables, text. Main Objectives and Activities: "Facilitate voluntary repatriation to Myanmar of those refugees who are willing and cleared to return; promote and initiate activities fostering self-reliance for refugees unable or unwilling to return in the near future, pending a lasting solution; co-ordinate and ensure protection and basic services for the refugees, paying special attention to women and children....."
Source/publisher: UNHCR
Date of publication: 1999-11-30
Date of entry/update: 2010-12-21
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Title: Bangladesh: Violent Crackdown Fuels Humanitarian Crisis for Unrecognized Rohingya Refugees
Description: Summary Stateless Rohingya people in Bangladesh are currently victims to unprecedented levels of violence and attempts at forced repatriation. Recent weeks have seen thousands of people arrive at Kutupalong makeshift camp as they flee what appears to be a violent crackdown on the Rohingya presence in the country. At its clinic in Kutupalong, in Cox?s Bazar District in the south of the country, Doctors Without Borders/M?decins Sans Fronti?res (MSF) has treated victims of beatings and harassment by the authorities and members of the community. The victims are people who have been driven from their shelters throughout the district and in some cases forced back into the river which forms the border to neighboring Myanmar.
Source/publisher: Medecian Sans Frontieres Doctors Wothout Borders
Date of publication: 2010-02-18
Date of entry/update: 2010-12-20
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Title: Sikkerheds- og menneskeretsforhold for rohingyaer i Burma og Bangladesh
Description: Rapport fra fact-finding mission til Bangkok i Thailand, Dhaka og Cox?s Bazar i Bangladesh og Maungdaw i Burma Oktober – november 2003 K?benhavn, december 2003 Udl?ndingestyrelsen
Source/publisher: Udl?ndinge Styrelsen
Date of publication: 2003-11-30
Date of entry/update: 2010-12-20
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Language: Dansk, Danish
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Title: Thousands of refugees harassed to return to Myanmar
Description: The free choice of refugees should be respected. In recent months, staff from MSF received over 550 complaints of coercion from the refugees. The complaints ranged from incidents of intimidation to outright threats of physical abuse to push people to repatriate...... Dhaka/Amsterdam - "The Bangladesh government is subjecting thousands of Rohingya refugees to intimidation and harassment as part of a campaign to pressure them to return to Myanmar (Burma), says the international humanitarian organisation M?ƒ ?decins Sans Fronti?ƒ ?res (MSF)..."
Source/publisher: Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF)
Date of publication: 2003-09-17
Date of entry/update: 2010-12-20
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Title: UNHCR: Bangladesh/Myanmar
Description: "An estimated 21,000 refugees from Rakhine State in Myanmar live in two camps in southern Bangladesh. They were among 250,000 people who originally fled Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) in 1992, claiming widespread human rights abuse, including rape and excessive unpaid community labor..."
Source/publisher: UNHCR
Date of publication: 1998-02-28
Date of entry/update: 2010-12-20
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Title: The Unwelcoming Committee
Description: Resentment of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh is giving rise to highly organized and increasingly vocal resistance to their presence... "Sitting on a dusty balcony outside the local district office in Ukhia in southern Bangladesh, a group of smartly dressed men take turns speaking their mind. One man, taller than the average Bangladeshi, stands up. Throwing his fist in the air, he states the group?s objective. Rohingya children in Bangladesh face a bleak future. (Photo: Yuzo/ The Irrawaddy) ?Those bloody naughty people, they destroy the environment, upset local law and order and sell drugs,? he says. ?They must all go back to Burma.? The rest of the group nod their heads and wave their hands to compete for the next opportunity to speak. Two things have brought this group of men together: grievances against Rohingya refugees who have settled in the area, and their powerful positions in the local community. Together they have formed the Anti-Rohingya Resistance Committee, which has taken on the role of pressuring the government to repatriate Rohingya refugees to Burma. Despite their dedication to their cause, however, their goal remains highly ambitious and controversial. Citing religious oppression in Burma, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees have fled to Bangladesh over the last three decades to seek asylum. Several times the Burmese government has made major pushes to flush the Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic minority, out of Burma?s Arakan State—the last one being in 1992..."
Alex Allgee
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" Vol. 18, No. 9
Date of publication: 2010-08-31
Date of entry/update: 2010-09-08
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Title: ISSUES TO BE RAISED CONCERNING THE SITUATION OF ROHINGYA CHILDREN IN MYANMAR (BURMA)
Description: SUBMISSION TO THE COMMITTEE ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD For the Examination of the 2nd periodic State Party Report of Myanmar... Conclusion: "Rohingya children bear the full brunt of the military regime?s policies of exclusion and discrimination towards the Muslim population of Rakhine State. The combination of the factors listed above, which deny them fundamental human rights, gravely damage their childhood development and will affect the future of the Rohingya community. With regard to Rohingya children, the State Peace and Development Council has failed to implement most of the rights enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Myanmar ratified in 1991. The Government has also ignored the suggestions and recommendations provided by the Committee in 1997, in particular, paragraph 28 in which ?The Committee recommends that the Citizenship Act be repealed” and paragraph 34 which stated: ?In the field of the right to citizenship, the Committee is of the view that the State Party should, in light of articles 2 (non-discrimination) and 3 (best interests of the child), abolish the categorization of citizens …” and that ?all possibility of stigmatisation and denial of rights recognized by the Convention should be avoided”"
Chris Lewa
Source/publisher: Forum Asia
Date of publication: 2003-10-31
Date of entry/update: 2010-07-17
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Title: STATELESS and STARVING - Persecuted Rohingya Flee Burma and Starve in Bangladesh
Description: Executive Summary: "In recent months Bangladeshi authorities have waged an unprecedented campaign of arbitrary arrest, illegal expulsion, and forced internment against Burmese refugees. In this emergency report Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) presents new data and documents dire conditions for these persecuted Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. PHR?s medical investigators warn that critical levels of acute malnutrition and a surging camp population without access to food aid will cause more deaths from starvation and disease if the humanitarian crisis is not addressed... Methods: The plight of the Burmese refugees in Bangladesh came to PHR?s attention while its researchers were conducting a quantitative study in the region on health and human rights in Burma. This emergency report is based on a sample of 100 unregistered refugee households at the Kutupalong makeshift camp in southeastern Bangladesh as well as in-depth interviews with 25 refugees and 30 other key informants throughout the region. Richard Sollom MA MPH, PHR?s Director of Research and Investigations, and Parveen Parmar MD, emergency physician at Harvard University?s Brigham and Women?s Hospital, conducted the eight-day assessment from 8-16 February 2010. Both team members have considerable experience working in refugee populations throughout the world and describe the conditions for unregistered Burmese in Bangladesh as alarming... Arbitrary arrest and forced expulsion of refugees by Bangladesh: The Burmese refugee population in Bangladesh is estimated at 200,000 to 400,000. The Government of Bangladesh and the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) jointly administer two ?official” camps with a combined population of just 28,000 registered refugees. The remaining unregistered refugees are currently not protected by UNHCR because they arrived after 1993 when the Bangladesh government ceased conferring refugee status to any Rohingya fleeing Burma. In an apparent attempt to dissuade the influx of any further refugees fleeing anticipated repression prior to elections in Burma later this year, Bangladesh police and border security forces are now systematically rounding up, jailing or summarily expelling these unregistered refugees across the Burmese border in flagrant violation of the country?s human rights obligations. Although Bangladesh has not acceded to the UN refugee convention, it is minimally obligated to protect this vulnerable population against refoulement (forced deportation across the border)... Makeshift camp is ?open-air prison”: Arbitrary arrest and expulsion by Bangladeshi authorities have acutely restricted all movement out of the unofficial camp, effectively quarantining tens of thousands of refugees in what one experienced humanitarian called ?an open-air prison.” Because refugees fear leaving the camp, they are no longer able to find work to buy food. This confinement, coupled with the Bangladeshi government?s refusal to allow unregistered refugees access to food aid, presents an untenable situation: refugees are being left to die from starvation... Refugee children facing starvation and disease: Tens of thousands of unregistered Burmese refugees in the burgeoning camp in Bangladesh have no access to food aid. Physicians for Human Rights researchers observed children in the unofficial camp who were markedly thin with protruding ribs, loose skin on their buttocks, and wizened faces ? all signs of severe protein malnutrition. The PHR team also came across many children who appeared to have kwashiorkor, as evidenced by swollen limbs and often distended abdomens. One out of five children with acute malnutrition, if not treated, will die. Results from the PHR household survey reveal that 18.2% of children examined suffer from acute malnutrition. In emergency settings, acute malnutrition is traditionally measured among children age 6?59 months. High rates of malnutrition in this age group correspond with high rates in the population as a whole. Child malnutrition levels that exceed 15% are considered ?critical” by the World Health Organization (WHO), which recommends in such crises that adequate food aid be delivered to the entire population to avoid high numbers of preventable deaths. In addition, PHR received numerous testimonies from families who had not eaten in two or more days. As a coping mechanism, many refugees are now forced to borrow food or money to feed their families. Results from the PHR survey show that 82% of households had borrowed food within the past 30 days, and 91% of households had borrowed money ? often with exorbitant interest rates ? within the previous 30 days. Walking through the Kutupalong camp, PHR investigators saw stagnant raw sewage next to refugees? makeshift dwellings. Human excrement and open sewers were visible throughout the camp. Results of the PHR survey show that 55% of children between 6?59 months suffered from diarrhea in the previous 30 days. Such inhuman conditions presage a public health disaster... Obstruction of humanitarian relief: PHR received reports of Bangladeshi authorities? actively obstructing the little amount of international humanitarian relief that reaches this population. Corroborating eyewitnesses report that a Bangladeshi Member of Parliament recently Persecuted Rohingya Flee Burma and Starve in Bangladesh rounded up four national staff of an international humanitarian organization, tied them to a tree, and beat them for providing aid to the Rohingya refugees. This environment of regular harassment by Bangladeshi authorities severely impairs the ability of NGOs to provide assistance to unregistered refugees. The UK-based organization Islamic Relief ceased its humanitarian operations in one camp on 28 February 2010 because the Bangladeshi government refused to approve the group?s humanitarian activities that benefit these refugees... Bangladeshi hate propaganda and incitement against Rohingya refugees: The Bangladeshi government?s ongoing crackdown against Rohingya refugees appears to be coordinated among local authorities, police, border security forces, and the ruling political elite. Bangladeshis near the southern coastal town of Cox?s Bazar have formed Rohingya ?resistance committees” that demand the expulsion from Bangladesh of the Rohingya. Bangladeshi authorities threaten villagers with arrest if they do not turn in their Rohingya neighbors. Local media disseminate ominous anti-Rohingya propaganda in editorials and opinion pieces, all of which incite xenophobic antagonism among local inhabitants... Background to the refugee crisis: Burma?s de facto president, Senior General Than Shwe, seized power 20 years ago while promising free and fair elections in 1990. That year, the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) defeated the military-backed State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), garnering 59% of the vote and 80% of the seats in the People?s Assembly. SLORC dismissed the results, and subsequently detained NLD?s Prime Minister-elect Aung San Suu Kyi, who is currently under house arrest. To fend off risk of a second defeat at the polls in late 2010, the Burmese military regime has stepped-up militarization and abuses against all ethnic minorities, who represent nearly 40% of Burma?s total population of 50 million. Than Shwe?s Tatmadaw military has locked up 2,200 political prisoners, destroyed more than 3,200 villages, and forced millions to flee, ensuring that opposition parties cannot organize prior to upcoming elections. Burmese ethnic minorities, including the Rohingya, continue to flee, seeking refuge in neighboring countries. An additional 8,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh in 2009. The Rohingya have a well-founded fear of persecution if forcibly returned to Burma. During the past five decades
Richard Sollom MA MPH
Source/publisher: Physicians for Human Rights
Date of publication: 2010-02-28
Date of entry/update: 2010-03-09
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Title: Living in a No-man?s Land [PHOTO ESSAY]
Description: The Rohingya of northwestern Burma are fleeing to Bangladesh, where unofficial, makeshift refugee camps are rapidly expanding. The plight of the Rohingya in Burma and Bangladesh has grown worse during the past year.
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" Vol. 18, No. 1
Date of publication: 2009-12-31
Date of entry/update: 2010-02-28
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Title: No Place for Buddhist Refugees
Description: Burmese Rakhines also face problems and discrimination in Bangladesh?s Cox?s Bazar District... "Thant Sin is one of thousands of Burmese Buddhist refugees living in Cox?s Bazar who fled from Burma across the Naf River, a long estuary that forms the Bangladeshi-Burmese border. Hiking through the jungle for 15 days to escape arrest for being a student organizer in the 1996 uprising in Sittwe, he reached Bangladesh and was able to register with the UN?s refugee agency, UNHCR, receiving an ID card that states in English and Bengali that the holder should not be forcefully repatriated to Burma. Unfortunately, he feels no safer because some Bangladeshi police are known to rip up Rakhine refugee cards and force them to pay bribes. ?We get very little financial assistance and when we do, it usually ends up being hard to receive and full of complications,? he said, adding that Rakhine refugees believe that if they were Muslims like the Rohingya, the Bangladeshi authorities would allow them into camps where they could benefit from assistance and security..."
Alex Ellgee
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" Vol. 18, No. 1
Date of publication: 2009-12-31
Date of entry/update: 2010-02-28
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Title: Nowhere to Turn
Description: Many homeless Rohingya prefer hunger in a hostile land to life in Burma... "I?ve lost everything in my life and now I can only pray that I don?t get sent back to Burma,? said Haziqah, a 27-year-old Rohingya resident of the unofficial Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh... Before joining the camp, Haziqah lived in the Bandarban Hill Tract, about 150 km [93 miles] to the north, where many Rohingya refugees from Burma have settled. She and her husband managed to survive on the meager wages he earned from odd jobs in the area and were starting to hope they could lead a normal existence. Rohingya men gather round to listen to Haziqah tell her story. (Photo: ALEX ELLGEE) But then, one morning seven days after giving birth to her first child, soldiers from the Bangladeshi border force, the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), stormed their village. Rounding up all the Rohingyas living there, they marched them toward the Bangladesh-Burma border. During the march, she said, the soldiers beat her husband severely and pushed her along, ignoring the week-old baby in her arms. When they reached the top of a hill bordering Burma, the soldiers simply gave them a shove to send them back to the country from which they had fled..."
Alex Ellgee
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" Vol. 18, No. 1
Date of publication: 2009-12-31
Date of entry/update: 2010-02-28
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Title: Unregistered Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh: Crackdown, forced displacement and hunger
Description: "An unprecedented crackdown by Bangladesh law enforcement agencies against unregistered Rohingya refugees who had settled outside the two official refugee camps in Cox?s Bazar District started on 2 January 2010. More than 500 Rohingyas were subsequently arrested in January and the crackdown continues. Some of those arrested were pushed back across the Burmese border and others were charged under immigration legislation and sent to jail. In parallel to the roundups, there is a resurgence of anti-Rohingya movements among the local population and of anti-Rohingya propaganda in the local media fuelling xenophobia and pressing the government to take action against the Rohingya. A similar campaign started earlier in 2009 in Bandarban District and is still ongoing. Over the last few weeks, fearing arrest, harassment or facing expulsion, more than 5,000 self-settled Rohingya have already fled their homes and most flocked to the Kutupalong makeshift camp in Ukhia in search of safety. The makeshift camp population is now estimated to have swelled to over 30,000. Forced displacement appears to be a device to push the vulnerable unregistered Rohingya into this camp. The makeshift camp residents, including uprooted families, do not receive food assistance and are now denied access to livelihood as they would face arrest if they left the camp to find work. Food insecurity and hunger is spreading rapidly and a serious humanitarian crisis is looming."
Source/publisher: The Arakan Project
Date of publication: 2010-02-15
Date of entry/update: 2010-02-15
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Type: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Bangladesh: A Life on Hold. The story of Noor Jahan, a refugee from Myanmar (video)
Description: "Noor Jahan fled from Myanmar in 1992. She lives in Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh. Life has always been hard- espcially with no chance to return home. But recent improvements in camp life have made her family's life a little easier. "
Source/publisher: UNHCR
Date of publication: 2008-12-01
Date of entry/update: 2009-02-13
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Language: English subtitles
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Title: ROHINGYA, ASYLUM SEEKERS & MIGRANTS FROM BURMA: A HUMAN SECURITY PRIORITY FOR ASEAN
Description: Since October 2006, about 10,000 Rohingya have boarded boats in Bangladesh and Burma and headed for Thailand and Malaysia. The thousands of Rohingya boat people are only the tip of the iceberg. Millions of Burmese have fled the country in the past decade, with two million in Thailand alone... ASEAN must be proactive in pressuring Burma?s military regime, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) to cease perpetuating the severe persecution and economic mismanagement that has been forcing millions of people to flee to neighboring countries.
Source/publisher: ALTSEAN-Burma
Date of publication: 2009-01-30
Date of entry/update: 2009-02-03
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Title: ISSUES TO BE RAISED CONCERNING THE SITUATION OF STATELESS ROHINGYA WOMEN IN MYANMAR (BURMA)
Description: SUBMISSION TO THE COMMITTEE ON THE ELIMINATION OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN (CEDAW) For the Examination of the combined 2nd and 3rd periodic State party Reports (CEDAW/C/MMR/3) -MYANMAR-....."...Rohingya women and girls suffer from the devastating consequences of brutal government policies implemented against their minority group but also from socio-religious norms imposed on them by their community, the combined impact of which dramatically impinges on their physical and mental well-being, with long-term effects on their development. a) State-sponsored persecution: The 1982 Citizenship Law renders the Rohingya stateless, thereby supporting arbitrary and discriminatory measures against them. Their freedom of movement is severely limited; they are barred from government employment; marriage restrictions are imposed on them; they are disproportionately subject to forced labour, extortion and other coercive measures. Public services such as health and education are appallingly neglected. Illiteracy is estimated at 80%. The compounded impact of these human right violations also results in household impoverishment and food insecurity, increasing the vulnerability of women and children....Rohingya women and girls are also subject to serious gender-based restrictions due to societal attitudes and conservative interpretation of religious norms in their male-dominated community. The birth of a son is always favoured. Girls? education is not valued and they are invariably taken out of school at puberty. Women and adolescent girls are usually confined to their homes and discouraged from participating in the economic sphere. They are systematically excluded from decision-making in community matters. Divorced women and widows are looked down upon, exposed to sexual violence and abandoned with little community support..."
Chris Lewa
Source/publisher: The Arakan Project
Date of publication: 2008-09-30
Date of entry/update: 2009-01-30
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Type: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Rohingyas and refugee status in Bangladesh
Description: The Rohingya refugees from northern Rakhine State in Myanmar are living in a precarious situation in their country of asylum, Bangladesh, but have seen significant improvements in recent times.
Pia Prytz Phiri
Source/publisher: "Forced Migration Review" No. 30
Date of publication: 2008-04-22
Date of entry/update: 2008-11-30
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Type: Individual Documents
Language: Burmese, English
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Title: Rohingya and Muslims in Arakan State: slow-burning genocide - August 2006
Description: "Almost 14 years have passed since the UN General Assembly recognized the suffering the Rohingya experienced at the hands of Burma?s military regime. Yet, Rohingya and Muslims from Burma continue to be subjected to a widespread and systematic campaign of persecution and discrimination at home and the denial of basic protection and fundamental rights in neighboring countries. Often overlooked in global media coverage, the plight of more than 1 million Rohingya and Muslims from Burma should be more closely watched by the international community, to prevent what increasingly appears to be another genocide in the making"
Source/publisher: ALTSEAN-Burma
Date of publication: 2006-07-31
Date of entry/update: 2007-05-02
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