Homeless and Unwanted: The Desperate Plight of Burma's Rohingya People
By Yohani Kamarudin, Environmental Graffiti, 3 June 2013.
By Yohani Kamarudin, Environmental Graffiti, 3 June 2013.
Conditions in these refugee camps are desperate. The cobbled-together huts that pass as housing have no electricity and limited access to water. Disease is rife under such squalid conditions, as is violence against the vulnerable, and little aid comes in from the outside world.
A Rohingya girl living in one of the Bangladeshi camps. Photo: Artur Gutowski.
This is the home of the Rohingya, one of the most persecuted minorities in the world. Landless and poverty-stricken, they are unwanted by both the country of their birth and the states to which they have fled.
A man and child overlooking the area. Photo: Artur Gutowski.
Photographer Artur Gutowski captured these touching images of Rohingya refugees in the Kutupalong and Shaplapour camps on the Burmese-Bangladeshi border. “According to Human Rights Watch, the conditions in the camp are more desperate than in any other area where the organization is active,” says Gutowski. “Illiteracy is widespread. Due to their unofficial refugee status these people have no medical care, which means that even minor illnesses can cause death. Disease is common, mortality is high.”
Refugee children play in a nearby forest. Photo: Artur Gutowski.
It’s hard to imagine a life terrible enough to compel people to come to camps like this. To understand why they are here, we have to look at the recent past of the Rohingya.
The Rohingya are a Muslim ethnic group believed to originate from Arakan in Burma. There is contention surrounding their origins, but they are linguistically tied to the Indo-Aryans from India and Bangladesh. This separates them through both religion and language from the Buddhist majority in Burma, who speak Sino-Tibetan languages.
A girl clings to the Koran. Photo: Artur Gutowski.
Regardless of their historical origins, the modern-day Rohingya consider Arakan their home. There has been conflict over the years between the Muslim minority and the Burmese junta who ruled the country. Amnesty International and other human rights groups allege that official discrimination against the Rohingya goes back decades. There has also been violence on both sides of the conflict. Some Rohingya joined Islamic militias, and the Burmese military have been accused of inciting riots against minorities.
Water is a scarce resource at the camps. Photo: Artur Gutowski.
In 1982, the Burmese government declared the Rohingya non-citizens and aliens within their own country. Restrictions were put on their travel, they were not allowed to own land and were even limited to two children. "The Nasaka [Burmese border guards] used to come and take away the men and boys," 70-year-old Rohingya refugee Nozir Hossain told The Guardian in June 2012. "They forced us to work as labourers without pay. This was only done to us, not to Rakhine [a Buddhist minority group] or anybody else.” Hossain saw his two sons murdered by the Nasaka and Rakhine.
A boy tends to a tiny, allotted piece of field. Photo: Artur Gutowski.
According to Amnesty International, the Rohingya “are also subjected to various forms of extortion and arbitrary taxation; land confiscation; forced eviction and house destruction; and financial restrictions on marriage. Rohingyas continue to be used as forced labourers on roads and at military camps, although the amount of forced labour in northern Rakhine State has decreased over the last decade.”
Refugees at the Kutupalong camp. Photo: Artur Gutowski.
In 2012, a series of riots erupted between the Rohingya and the Rakhine Buddhists in Rakhine State. The exact cause of the riots is not certain. Some pinpoint the rape and murder of a Rakhine woman - allegedly by a group of Rohingya - and the reprisal killings of 10 Muslims. However, there had been tension between the two peoples for a while before this.
A young refugee girl poses in front of a makeshift background. Photo: Artur Gutowski.
The Rakhine State riots ended with at least 168 fatalities, damage to property, and an estimated 100,000 displaced people. The Burmese government’s response of the riots has been criticized by human rights organizations. They say that Rohingya people were arrested, placed in camps, brutally treated and denied aid. Even Burmese Buddhist monks have called for a campaign against the Rohingya, and threatened those who traded with the Muslim minority.
A Rohingya carries a load of branches. Photo: Artur Gutowski.
Since 1978, the Rohingya have been fleeing Burma, when officially sanctioned violence led to killings, rapes and religious persecution. More than 200,000 Rohingya people fled to Bangladesh. Thousands have also headed to Thailand over the years, where they have received little sympathy. There are tales of shiploads of refugees, sometimes with their hands bound, being towed out to sea and left to the mercy of the ocean.
A young Rohingya refugee. Photo: Artur Gutowski.
There are currently around 230,000 Rohingya people living in Bangladesh, with 30,000 of them in the official government refugee camps in Kutupalong and Nayapara. Most of the registered refugees have never seen their homeland because 70 percent of them were either born in the camps or arrived as young children. They are the lucky ones, assured food, water, healthcare and primary schooling by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Since 1992, the Bangladesh government has not allowed the UNHCR to register any new Rohingya refugees.
A camp resident carries wood. Photo: Artur Gutowski.
Most Rohingya in Bangladesh live outside the official government refugee camps as illegal migrants. Since they are not official refugees, they get little help, if any, from the UNHCR. However, the Bangladeshi government tries to make conditions as unappealing as possible for any would-be refugees. They have even rejected a proposal by the UN to help fund a health and education initiative in the Cox’s Bazar region, even though impoverished Bangladeshis would also have benefited. Also, as in Thailand, there are reports of refugee boats being sent back out to sea by Bangladeshi coast guards.
Another young refugee poses for Gutowski. Photo: Artur Gutowski.
Those living in the official camps may have better access to basic needs, but things are still far from easy, and some feel that they are living without hope. “This is no life,” says Shaufiq Alam, a 30-year-old refugee at the Kutupalong camp. “I've been living here for 20 years. If I'd stayed in my village, I would at least have had access to education. The situation in the camp has had a destructive influence on our lives.”
A group of refugees on their tiny patch of field. Photo: Artur Gutowski.
There are no secondary schools at the camps, and refugee children are barred from local schools - although a lucky few manage to sneak in. "There is nothing for us here," Nozir Hossain says. "We would like to go back home…back to farming our land. I hope the government will be fair and give us our rights."
A Rohingya man prays at his son's grave. Photo: Artur Gutowski.
Recently, the plight of the Rohingya has attracted more international attention. Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been noticeably silent in the past about the situation, has recently condemned the compulsory two-child policy. "It is not good to have such discrimination. And it is not in line with human rights either," she said. However, despite the attention, things do not seem to be improving for the Rohingya. It doesn’t help that both radical Buddhists and Muslims in Burma have been involved in communal violence against each other.
70 percent of Rohingya at the camps were either born there or arrived as small children.
Photo: Artur Gutowski.
For those in the camps, there is little hope. “UNHCR tries to teach the refugees crafts they might find useful in later life - carpentry, tailoring and making soap,” says Gutowski. “Some of the refugees can make money by distributing food rations among the other inhabitants of the camp. However, they earn only US$22, which is not enough to feed a family.”
Article Sources:
1. Rohingya - stateless and unwanted (Bēhance)
2. Bangladesh: The Silent Crisis
3. Bangladesh
4. Rohingya - stateless and unwanted (Social Documentary)
5. Rohingya people
6. 2012 Rakhine State riots
7. Burma's Rohingya refugees find little respite in Bangladesh
8. The Rohingya Minority: Fundamental Rights Denied
9. Who Are the Rohingya?
10. Thai Navy Commits Atrocities against Boatpeople
11. BANGLADESH: Rohingya refugees face more restrictions
12. The young and the hopeless in Bangladesh's camps
13. Myanmar's displaced Rohingyas face severe health risks in camps
14. Aung San Suu Kyi condemns Rohingya 'two-child policy'
15. Myanmar Struggles to Put Down Buddhist Attack on Muslims
1. Rohingya - stateless and unwanted (Bēhance)
2. Bangladesh: The Silent Crisis
3. Bangladesh
4. Rohingya - stateless and unwanted (Social Documentary)
5. Rohingya people
6. 2012 Rakhine State riots
7. Burma's Rohingya refugees find little respite in Bangladesh
8. The Rohingya Minority: Fundamental Rights Denied
9. Who Are the Rohingya?
10. Thai Navy Commits Atrocities against Boatpeople
11. BANGLADESH: Rohingya refugees face more restrictions
12. The young and the hopeless in Bangladesh's camps
13. Myanmar's displaced Rohingyas face severe health risks in camps
14. Aung San Suu Kyi condemns Rohingya 'two-child policy'
15. Myanmar Struggles to Put Down Buddhist Attack on Muslims
Top image via AK Rockefeller
Related Post: Aung San Suu Kyi's "Saffron Monks" Stalk Streets With Machetes - Mass Slaughtering Refugees
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please adhere to proper blog etiquette when posting your comments. This blog owner will exercise his absolution discretion in allowing or rejecting any comments that are deemed seditious, defamatory, libelous, racist, vulgar, insulting, and other remarks that exhibit similar characteristics. If you insist on using anonymous comments, please write your name or other IDs at the end of your message.