June 20, 2024
COX’S BAZAR – While the World Refugee Day is being observed today across the globe, Rohingyas living in Cox’s Bazar are still passing days amid uncertainty regarding their repatriation to Myanmar.
Around 1 million Rohingyas, most of whom had fled to Bangladesh facing persecution by Myanmar junta forces in 2017, have been living as refugees at camps in Cox’s Bazar for the last seven years.
The ongoing armed conflict in Myanmar may stall the process of their repatriation, feared Rohingyas in Cox’s Bazar.
Fierce clashes between Myanmar junta forces and rebel Arakan Army have been going on in Rakhine state along the Bangladesh border since February this year.
The Arakan Army has captured a vast part of the state including the areas once populated by Rohingyas before they faced persecution and displacement in 2017.
Many Rohingyas at Cox’s Bazar camps are worried about a safe and dignified return to their homeland.
Mohammad Hossain, who lives in Camp-1, is one of them.
“Amid the ongoing clashes in Myanmar, I am not sure how our repatriation process might progress, while many of our brothers and sisters are in great danger there,” he said.
Mohammad Zubair, chairman of Arakan Rohingya Society of Peace and Human Rights, said they want to be repatriated under the agreement with the junta government, not with the Arakan Army.
However, without a treaty with the Junta government, the agreement would not be valid, he also said.
“We want to go return home with dignity and recognition of our ethnicity,” Zubair said.
Visiting the camps arranged by the UNHCR recently, this correspondent witnessed the plight of Rohingyas living there in densely packed makeshift shelters made using tarpaulin and bamboo.
The heat wave was unbearable living under the tarpaulin, even though the camp area is now much greener compared to previously, said Mohammad Solim of Camp-4.
Over 2,500 hectares of forest land in Ukhiya and Teknaf had been cleared for building the Rohingya camps and to provide firewood for cooking.
To stop the deforestation, cylindered gas was later distributed among around 200,000 Rohingya families in the camps.
Simultaneously, under a reforestation project, greenery returned to around 700 hectares of land in the camps, according to UNHCR.
According to Unicef data, around 3 lakh Rohingya children now have access to education up to grade 10 taught in the Myanmar curriculum.
Per capita ration for Rohingyas was cut into phases from $12 to $8 per person per month 2023, before it rose to $10 in 2024.
Around 5,000 Rohingya youths have been provided life-skill trainings including sewing, plumbing, electrical, masonry, etc.
“We are happy that the Bangladesh government has given us safe shelters. However, we don’t want to be burden to Bangladesh. We want dignified repatriation to Myanmar. We feel our lives are stuck in these dense camps,” said Maulana Abdul Hamid, a Rohingya from Camp-1 East.