The Rohingya have been subject to racial and religious violence for many years with a substantial increase in August 2017. The Rohingya are a Muslim ethnic minority in Myanmar who are perceived as ‘foreign intruders’ from Bangladesh and therefore discriminated against. They are seen as a threat to the Buddhist way of life which is propagated by extremist Buddhist monks. This genocide of the Rohingya has forced over 700,000 Rohingya to seek refuge in neighbouring Bangladesh. However, the struggles have not stopped there.
Refugees in the Kutupalong and Nayapara refugee camps in Bangladesh must deal with overcrowding. More than 33,000 refugees were registered in 2017 for both these camps. The UNHCR also recorded an arrival of 13,746 new refugees in Bangladesh from January to September 2018. Over the past two years, the number of refugees entering has not stopped. The sheer number of refugees is also a great threat as unstable weather like the high possibility of a typhoon will cause a very high death toll. Also, overcrowding has caused the camps to become more and more polluted further creating the risk of an epidemic such as a cholera outbreak.
Other problems include the trafficking of Rohingya women and girls. Since the refugee camps cover over 6,000 acres of land, the tracking of and the dealing with the problem of sex trafficking has not been a priority of the Bangladesh government. Thus, there is very limited data on how many girls and women have actually been trafficked. In hope for a better life and earning money, young and vulnerable Rohingya girls are promised jobs and food by traffickers. The huge influx of refugees has allowed this “business” to thrive as vulnerable girls and women are an easy target for traffickers. This has added to the trauma and instability for many Rohingya.
It is no surprise that Rohingya families face separation, displacement and immense trauma. The violence towards them is unspeakable. Finding refuge in Bangladesh for now has allowed some relief but the future of the Rohingya refugees is far from certain. They are unwanted from all angles, from their homeland to the camps. The Rohingya face the largest growing humanitarian crisis of the modern day.
Sources:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/burma-rohingya-muslims-whats-behind-persecution-aung-san-suu-kyi-a7449126.html https://www.unocha.org/rohingya-refugee-crisis
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