Nowhere Safe - Rohingyas Longing for Home. Increasing Threats to Refugees, Safety from Traffickers, Receiving Countries And Natural Disasters.
By : Marsha Michel
In recent weeks, the world has been focused on the war in Ukraine that led to what is considered the fastest refugee displacement. Rightly so, the humanitarian response has been swift and resources mobilized to respond to the need of Ukrainian refugees. The war is ongoing and millions have been openly welcomed in neighboring countries with humanity and dignity. The same can be done for all refugees to be welcomed, treated with humanity, and dignity. The Rohingya people deserve the same. According to The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), since 2020 there have been over 82.4 million people who were forced to flee their homes with forty-two percent of them children. Sixty-eight percent of the refugees come from Afghanistan, Syria, Venezuela, South Sudan and Myanmar with eighty-six percent located in developing countries; thirty-nine percent of refugees are hosted in Colombia, Germany, Uganda, Pakistan, and Turkey.
Refugees are one of the most vulnerable groups in the world, yet we are witnessing so much hostility towards certain groups of refugees and increasing refoulement practices by countries like Greece, the United States, UK, and the European Union (EU). These policies are on the uptick and increasing the perilous plight and vulnerabilities of refugees while also creating a new humanitarian crisis. This World Refugee Day (WRD) marks over twenty years since this day was created to commemorate the humanity, strength, and courage of refugees, and to garner empathy and kindness from the rest of the world. On World Refugee Day, I think of refugees from all over the world fleeing wars, atrocities, and increasingly climate disasters, many of whom dreamt of freedom and peace but were instead met with hostility and prejudice. On this day, I think especially of the Rohingyas—an ethnic minority from Burma who have been denied citizenship and fleeing persecution since the 1970s—who are refugees in Bangladesh.
In 2017, more than 700,000 Rohingyas fled genocide in Myanmar to Bangladesh, and those who remain there are in camps with no freedom of movement and dependent on humanitarian assistance. The Rohingyas fled genocide by Burmese military to Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, one of the most disaster prone areas of that country. Bangladesh is a country under water always fighting the next devastating major storm, especially during monsoon seasons. Today’s UNHCR's most recent population update estimates the Rohingyas in Cox’s Bazar to be at 925,380.
In Cox’s Bazar, the Rohingyas live in thirty-four makeshift camps in appalling conditions; shelters made of bamboo and plastic sheeting that do not protect them from yearly flooding and fires because the Government of Bangladesh (GoB) does not want permanent structures that would lead them to think that they were welcome to be permanent residents. Since 2019, the GoB has put tremendous restrictions on the refugee camps and on humanitarian organizations providing assistance to the refugees. These restrictions ebb and flow from delays in project and visa approvals for humanitarian actors, limitations on cash incentive for refugees working in the camps and education activities. Some of the restrictions may have been a way to somehow pressure the Rohingyas to return to Burma or relocate willingly to Bhasan Char.
Since December 2020, the GoB has relocated at least 19,000 Rohingya refugees to Bhashan Char, a remote island thirty seven kilometers from the mainland that is prone to flooding. On the island, the GoB constructed red-roofed brick housing including cyclone shelters for more than 100,000 refugees and many of them have attempted to flee the island only to be detained by the police. With the promise of a better life on Bashan Char compared to the harsh conditions of camp life in Cox’s Bazar, the reality is quite different; the Rohingyas have no freedom of movement, no livelihood opportunities, no access to education, and lack of health services in both the camps and the island, but more so on the island due to lack of humanitarian aid to develop these much needed humanitarian programs. According to a New York Times article, 200 Rohingya refugees have been arrested for attempting to leave Bhasan Char. The Rohingyas are not only attempting to flee the island but also the refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar. The Rohingya refugee response in Bangladesh is a crisis within a crisis as more refugees are fleeing lack of freedom, insecurity and deplorable living conditions, they increasingly face traffickers that prey on their desperation. In 2020, Bangladesh Coast guard rescued 396 Rohingyas from a boat set off to Malaysia; thirty-eight died. This is the life of refugees like the Rohingyas who have no citizenship and no say in the decisions that affect their everyday lives: their miseries are seemingly endless. While the GoB had been pushing this idea of relocation to the island for quite some time, this decision was made without the consent of the international community and even less with the informed consent of the Rohingyas. The refugees felt they had no choice on the issue - either stay in the camps with increasing insecurity, numerous fires and floods, or move to an island that seemed to promise better conditions overall.
During the monsoon season in 2021, Cox’s Bazar experienced some of the most devastating rainfall that led to floods, water-logging, and landslides throughout the refugee camps. This disaster affected not only the lives of the refugees but those of the host communities as well. This year yet again, the monsoon season has destroyed shelters and landslides have taken the life of a Rohingya child. Since May 2022, my twitter feed has been inundated with pictures of the refugee camps flooded with the monsoon season in full swing; water up to their chests in certain parts of the camps. These areas are flooded during the rainy season, but face water insecurity especially during the dry season; this is due to lack of access to non-contaminated water, which itself is due to the distance between tubewells and latrines. Access to clean water is a problem not just in the camps but also to Bangladeshis in Cox's Bazar. Acute water diarrhea is a problem in the Rohingya refugee camps and in the host communities. The Rohingyas are in the front lines of the climate emergency, and it’s time for the international community to put pressure on the GoB to implement sustainable changes in the refugee camps to reduce the impact of these yearly natural disasters.
According to the World Food Programme (WFP), in 2021 the Rohingya, refugees were victims of numerous fires in the camps, and one of the deadliest occurred in March 2021 where fifteen refugees died and numerous injured; moreover, thousands of shelters were destroyed. WFP along with other humanitarian actors provided humanitarian assistance to the victims of the fire. Many refugees could not escape the fire because of the barbed wire fence which prevented rescue efforts. At the time of the installation of the fence, humanitarian actors expressed concern regarding the fencing’s effect on refugee access to life-saving interventions and humanitarian actors’ access to refugees in the camps, as well as the fencing’s effect on refugee evacuations in the event of a natural or man-made disaster. The fencing is also a huge barrier to social cohesion between the refugees and host communities, and livelihood opportunities for both communities. Refugees living in these camps are even more restricted now since they require permission to leave. The Rohingyas are constantly relieving inescapable trauma.
Generations of Rohingyas have not known what it means to be safe at home, and in Cox’s Bazar they continuously face significant protection risks—including gender-based violence, insecurity, and restricted access to essential services due to poor service quality, a lack of official registration, and geographic isolation. At the beginning of COVID-19 in 2020, humanitarian actors' footprint in the camps were severely restricted, which led to increased activity by organized criminal groups who extorted refugees and became increasingly involved in dispute resolution. With a reduced number of humanitarian actors, legal and protection counselors visit to the camps, majhis—unelected representatives in the Rohingya community—have begun mediating disputes and conflicts using practices counter to humanitarian protection principles, such as asking for payment for their services or mediating in favor of one party to the dispute. There are numerous reports of criminal activities and gangs competing for control in the camps and threatening the thin veil of peace that the Rohingya refugees thought they had found in Cox’s Bazar.
On March 21, 2022, the U.S. Government finally declared Myanmar’s mass killing of the Rohingyas in 2017 a genocide. While this was much welcome news, much more is owed to the Rohingyas who have been fleeing state sponsored violence since the 70s and to those who remain in Myanmar. are confined in concentration camps aggravated by the military coup that took place in February 2021. Wherever they are, the Rohingyas have no rights, no choice, and no say; they are at the mercy of the GoB—and on donors' generosity to provide the most basic humanitarian assistance.
The international community, especially the United States, should have a policy centered on the Rohingyas. Withholding humanitarian assistance from the Rohingyas on Bhasan Char is only causing more harm because they depend solely on humanitarian assistance. Donors should continue working closely with the Government of Bangladesh to protect the rights and to improve the lives of the Rohingyas in Cox's Bazar and Bhasan Char.
Since the international community was not in agreement with the relocation of Rohingya refugees to Bhasan Char, many donors have not been funding the humanitarian response on the island. However, USAID is now allowing some of its funds to be used for humanitarian assistance on the island. This is significant because the United States is the largest donor to the humanitarian response; for the past several years, USAID has contributed overall 70% of funding to the humanitarian food assistance to the Rohingya refugee crisis in Bangladesh.
With nowhere to go, there is no end in sight to the miseries of the Rohingyas desperate to return home. The Rohingyas are losing hope of returning home as the reigns of military dictatorship are ongoing. In the meantime, the Rohingyas continue to live in the sprawling refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar with no opportunity for livelihoods and no access to education for a better future. Rohingyas are born and will grow up stateless - they are not recognized in Burma and they are not recognized as refugees in Bangladesh. Unless their status changes, all the doors will remain closed to them.
Is there more that the international community, especially the United States, can do for the Rohingyas in Bangladesh? Is there room for deeper engagement and negotiations with the GoB to improve the living conditions of the refugees in the camps while ensuring their rights are protected as the refugee response is becoming protracted? The global community should take a closer look at the Global Compact on Refugees which offers a framework for equitable and predictable sustainable solutions to a refugee crisis. While Bangladesh endorsed the document, the GoB is not a signatory to the Refugee Convention and does not recognize the Rohingyas as refugees. The Global Compact on Refugees has not had much impact since there has not been much push from the global community for the GoB to adopt it. This opportunity is a win-win situation, as it has the potential to garner consistent funding streams for durable solutions for the refugees and to contribute to sustainable investment in Cox’s Bazar that addresses the increasing challenges of climate threats in a disaster prone area. The Global Compact will not solve the protracted Rohingya refugee crisis but offers a step to improving the lives of the Rohingya refugees until a durable solution can be agreed upon, and alleviate the burden facing Bangladesh in hosting a large refugee population.
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Written by: Marsha Michel - Liaison Coordinator for the Climate Change Working Group for Women of Color Advancing Peace, Security and Conflict (WCAPS). Ms. Michel worked for USAID from 2009 - 2022 and most recently a Senior Humanitarian Advisor on the Rohingya Refugee Crisis in Bangladesh.