Caught between two tigers
Dr Graham Thom reports on the plight of 26,000 stateless Rohingya who have been trapped in refugee camps for 16 years.
The Rohingya refugees of Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) are caught between their own government, which forced them to leave their country and won't let them back in, and the Bangladeshi Government that insists they must return. They call it being caught between two tigers.
Arakan State in Myanmar is inhabited by two ethnic groups, the Buddhist Rakhine and the Muslim Rohingya. The Rakhine are close to Myanmar's ruling Burman in both religion and language, while the Rohingya, who make up about a third of the area's population, are ethnically and religiously related to the Chittagonian people of southern Bangladesh and are concentrated in northern Arakan, close to the Bangladesh border.
The Rohingya are not among the 135 'national races' identified by the Burmese Government and the Citizenship Law of 1982 leaves them stateless, effectively making them illegal immigrants in their own country.
In an effort to encourage their departure to Bangladesh, their freedom of religion and movement is restricted, they must apply for permission to marry, their land has been confiscated and they suffer severe economic constraints. The military has murdered fathers and husbands and raped mothers, sisters and daughters. They are routinely subjected to brutal forced labour, arbitary taxation and constant humiliations.
In Bangladesh
In the last mass exodus in 1991–1992 approximately 250,000 Rohingyan refugees (nearly 30 per cent of the population of Northern Arakan) fled to Bangladesh. Of the hundreds of thousands repatriated back to Myanmar between 1992 and 1995 a significant number have subsequently returned to Bangladesh, where they now live illegally in the community.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has not been allowed to assist any Rohingya fleeing persecution after 1992 and can therefore only take responsibility for those remaining from the 1991–92 exodus.
At present there are 26,000 such refugees and they live in appalling conditions in two camps in Bangladesh: Nayapara, near Teknaf, and Kutupalong, near Ukhia. They are housed in sheds made of bamboo and plastic sheeting, with a mud floor and low roof.
Despite the fact they've been in these camps for 16 years and 45 per cent of them were born there, the Bangladeshi Government still regards the camps as temporary holding centres for refugees who will 'shortly' be returning to Myanmar. For this reason no significant improvements have been made to the camps over the past 15 years.
In the camps
The refugees are not allowed to leave the camps and have no right to work. Those willing to risk looking for work pay bribes to leave the camp and, if caught, have been severely beaten. Their children are beaten by local villagers if they go out to collect firewood. Children have also been held for ransom if caught outside the camp.
Education is restricted, with classes only to Grade 5, and only Burmese, English and maths may be taught. Food distribution and medical care are a problem, with more than 15 per cent of refugees malnourished.
A climate of fear dominates, with violence and corruption rife over the past 15 years. A small group of refugees, the Mahjees, appointed by the Government of Bangladesh, keeps control by terrorising the rest of the refugees into submission. Until recently they have acted with impunity, often using brutal methods to deny refugees from organising meaningful activities.
While the UNHCR has recently undertaken a number of measures to improve conditions in the camps, further initiatives are desperately needed to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all the refugees.
The unofficial camp
Even worse-off than the 'official' refugees is a further group of about 9,500 Rohingya who were expelled from rented accommodation in Teknaf in a 2002 eviction campaign and forced to camp out near the Teknaf District Office.
They were threatened with deportation, but the Myanmar authorities would not accept them so they now live in flimsy homes of bamboo, plastic sheets and flattened cement bags on muddy ground, sleeping as many as 16 in a room only slightly larger than a small shed.
The huts are barely a metre apart and are positioned between a river and a busy road. About 25 refugees, most of them children, have been killed on the road in the past two years.
The UNHCR has not been allowed to help them, other than to distribute some plastic sheeting. Medicines Sans Frontiers (Doctors Without Borders) Holland has been allowed to open a health clinic which has reduced the previously high rates of disease and infant mortality.
In Australia
Australia currently has seven Rohingyan asylum seekers detained on Nauru. These men fled to Australia in August 2006 after living illegally in Malaysia for a number of years. Amnesty International has received reports that they suffered persecution and abuse in both Myanmar and Malaysia. After eight months Australia has yet to process their applications; however, if found to be refugees they may be part of the refugee 'swap' with the US recently announced by the Australian Government.
This article was first published in the June/July 2007 issue of the Human Rights Defender, AIA's bi-monthly publication.
