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.

New York (AsiaNews) – Forced labour, hunger, health crises, and an increasingly violent and brutal conflict are the conditions that await Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh upon their return to their homeland, Myanmar's Rakhine State.

Amnesty International made the charge at a meeting held yesterday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York. The meeting was organised to develop plans to allow over a million Rohingya refugees living in the Cox's Bazar refugee camps to return to Myanmar. Most fled persecution by Myanmar’s military between 2016 and 2017.

A group of Rohingya activists attended the conference. Maung Sawyeddollah, founder of the Rohingya Student Network, is one of them.

“Dear brothers and sisters, you are not forgotten. You might feel that the world doesn’t see your suffering. Rohingya see you,” said the 22-year-old addressing his fellow Rohingya.

“Now this message is for the world leaders and the United Nations: It has already been more than eight years since the Rohingya genocide was exposed. Where is justice for the Rohingya? Where?” he asked.

In 2017, the then UN High Commissioner for Human Rights described the persecution of the Rohingya as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing”.

Fearing for his life, Sawyeddollah walked for 15 days with his family to the Bangladesh border for safety.

According to a report released on Monday by the UN Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM), Myanmar’s military has destroyed villages and mosques and converted Rohingya-held lands into security outposts.

“They had knowledge of Rohingya land rights and tenure through official records," reads the report based on eyewitness accounts and satellite images.

During his speech, Maung Sawyeddollah showed a photo of a group of bodies lying in a river, people killed in a drone strike by the Arakan Army in August last year.

“These are not isolated cases; they are part of a systematic campaign,” said Sawyeddollah. “Why is there no prevention of these inhumane atrocities by Arakan Army?” he asked.

Since the outbreak of the civil war in Myanmar, the situation has become even more complicated in Rakhine State.

The local conflict involves three main players: Myanmar’s military, which carried out a coup in 2021; the Arakan Army (AA), an ethnic rebel militia seeking autonomy for Rakhine against the military junta; and the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), a Muslim armed group that initially claimed to defend the Rohingya but now appears to be allied with the Myanmar army against the AA, which is composed mostly of ethnic Rakhine (or Arakanese) Buddhists.

In its action, the AA has repeatedly attacked the Rohingya (summary executions, burning of villages, violence against civilians) when it seized control of strategic areas.

ARSA, on the other hand, which is considered a terrorist organisation by Myanmar authorities, has collaborated with the army since the outbreak of the civil war, sometimes forcibly recruiting young Rohingya refugees in Bangladeshi refugee camps, a practice that has often drawn criticism from several Rohingya Muslim leaders.

The situation “has worsened," noted at the conference Wai Wai Nu, another Rohingya activist and founder of the Myanmar Women's Peace Network, because of conscription, sexual violence, killings, and the blocking of aid – all actions perpetrated by Myanmar’s military in Rakhine.

“Without action, the Rohingya exodus will continue until there is no more Rohingya left in Myanmar,” she said, calling for the establishment of cross-border humanitarian corridors, targeted sanctions, and prosecution for the crimes committed so far.

A report released a couple of days ago by Amnesty International includes 15 interviews with Rohingya refugees who recently fled Rakhine, in particular the townships of Maungdaw and Buthidaung, two areas that have been under AA control for about a year.

“Existing conditions in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine State are nowhere near ready for Rohingya to return safely,” Amnesty International’s Myanmar Researcher Joe Freeman said.

“The Arakan Army has, to many Rohingya, replaced the Myanmar military as their oppressor. The military are using Rohingya civilians as cannon fodder to fight against the Arakan Army, and Rohingya armed groups are launching new attacks into the territory,” he explained.

Making matters worse, “The dramatic reduction of US aid has further contributed to a humanitarian crisis in which supplies are scarce and prices are skyrocketing.”

For Freeman, “While it is vitally important to put an international spotlight on the Rohingya crisis with this conference, any attempt to push ahead with repatriation without addressing the acute dangers facing all communities – Rohingya, Rakhine and other ethnic minorities in Bangladesh and in Myanmar – could be catastrophic.”

In the past few months alone, another 150,000 Rohingya refugees have fled, explained Earle Courtenay Rattray, Chef de Cabinet to United Nations Secretary General, who also mentioned cuts in international aid.

UN agencies have in fact been forced to reduce food rations, with serious consequences for children and infants who suffer from malnutrition and experience high levels of mortality.

• myanmar
• bangladesh
• rakhine
• cox’s bazar
• rohingya
• refugees
• united nations
• aid
• cuts
• muslims
• buddhists