NO RESPITE FOR ROHINGYA IN BANGLADESH Refugees forced to flee Myanmar are living in camps without adequate access to food or health services. Rohingya refugee Shajida Begum, 18, has lived in northern Britain for four years, and 2014 will be the year she finishes high school and hopefully begins a university degree in accountancy. It is a very different life from the one she left in the Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh, where she was born and spent her first 14 years. Shajida is grateful for her new existence in the UK, but is constantly reminded of those she left behind. We still miss the people who live in the refugee camps. We are happy, we have rights, we have got everything, but people who are still back home have got absolutely nothing, she told M R Bangladesh & Al Jazeera. I was worried about leaving them because I can imagine how difficult it is to stay there. There is no electricity, no facilities, no health and safety. About 30,000 Rohingya refugees officially live in Bangladeshi camps today. Unofficially, there are more are 200,000 unregistered Rohingya there. The registered are provided with aid and support by The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Bangladesh government. Unregistered refugees receive nothing. Bangkok-based UNHCR spokeswoman Vivian Tan described what she has witnessed as a dire situation. The number of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh has increased since violence in neighbouring Arakan state in Myanmar erupted between Muslim Rohingya and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists in June 2012, which caused some of the 140,000 internally displaced to attempt to flee across the border. Tayub Uddin is the vice president of the newly formed Democracy and Human Rights Party. He described in an email from his base in Yangon, capital of Myanmar, the current situation for Rohingya in that country. There is completely no law and order in Arakan state for us. We are no more than animals in our motherland, he told M R Bangladesh Al Jazeera. Since 2010, rapid democratic reforms in Myanmar have reopened diplomatic channels and an international spotlight has been shone on the plight of the Rohingya, but little is known about refugees living in Bangladesh. Even less is known about what the future might hold for tens-of- thousands of unregistered refugees.
Posted on: Thu, 16 Jan 2014 16:56:56 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015