Rohingya

The government is calling for a review of the role of the UN refugee agency, accusing it of a lack of cooperation with the authorities. A group of asylum seekers fled Penang following incidents of hostility from local residents. Human rights organisations are denouncing a growing climate of hatred.

The Home Affairs Ministry blames preventable or treatable diseases. Conditions have worsened since the latest wave of arrests. More than half of irregular migrants are Rohingya, as are the 500 who have gone missing at sea in recent weeks after their boats capsized.

Forced labour, hunger, health crises, and violence make up the hell that awaits Rohingya refugees if forced to return to Rakhine State, currently a battleground between Myanmar’s military and various ethnic militias. At the UNGA in New York, Rohingya activists and Amnesty International called for humanitarian corridors and international justice, while refugee camps in Bangladesh scramble to cope with the blow of reduced aid.

The vote is set to start on 28 December, and subsequent rounds in January. Currently, 55 parties have registered, nine ready to run countrywide. Humanitarian NGOs and the international community are highly critical of the vote, but China wants stability. Meanwhile, the humanitarian emergency is growing, particularly in Rakhine State, where the WFP warns that resources are in dire shortage.

In Rakhine, the Arakan Army – like the military junta – is forcibly recruiting men and women, exacerbating the civil war and aggravating the humanitarian crisis. Meanwhile, Rohingya face continued abuses after fleeing abroad. India is accused of arbitrarily detaining refugees and illegally pushing some back at sea, while fuelling the stigmatisation of Muslim refugees at home.

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In the first nine months of the year at least 435 people were killed by the military. It was 113 in 2021. This is compounded by artillery strikes and air attacks against houses, schools and religious buildings, as well as massacres and arson attacks by troops in the field. The junta uses fear as a weapon. At least a thousand civilians trapped in fighting in Rakhine State.

Seven years after the great flight of hundreds of thousands of members of the Muslim minority from Myanmar, the situation in Bangladesh's reception centres is still an emergency. The account of a Jesuit, who has been involved in aid and shelter work for years. Dhaka has limited resources, but we need stability and peace in former Burma before repatriating them.

Activist movements report testimony from survivors of persecution at the hands of the rebel group fighting the army. On Aug. 5, dozens (or hundreds) of Muslims, including young children, killed in a drone and artillery attack as they tried to flee. More than 250,000 Rohingya have been homeless in Buthidaung and Maungdaw since April.

Kim Aris, 47, has accepted on his mother’s behalf the honorary citizenship awarded to her by the town of Abbiategrasso (Italy). Her family does not know where the 79-year-old is being detained nor her health conditions. According to her son, the international community did not understand Aung San Suu Kyi's actions with the Rohingya.

Caritas Secretary General Alistair Dutton visits the refugee camps where Caritas Bangladesh has been active since 2017 together with the Government of Bangladesh. Global food aid has fallen to US$ 10 per person per month, which has serious consequences. “Rohingya families are among the most vulnerable people in our world today,” Dutton said. “Teenagers have now spent half of their life in these settlements.” The international community cannot leave Bangladesh alone.

Despite the Internet blockade imposed by the military junta, the United Nations has received “frightening and disturbing reports" of attacks against Rohingya civilians. Increasingly in difficulty on the ground, the junta is fuelling inter-ethnic tensions, enlisting (even forcibly) Rohingya to fight the local ethnic militia. The country is thus reverting to sectarian violence.