By Alok Bhatt
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia
Bangladesh – The Bangladeshi government has provoked chastisement from the international community once more for its gross mistreatment of the Rohingya Muslim minority. The Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) released a statement on Tuesday stating that the state of the makeshift refugee camps in Bangladesh constitutes numerous human rights violations. The report focuses on the starvation which has been occurring in the refugee camps to which droves of Rohingya Muslims escape. Other members of the ethnic minority, however, have also been coerced into dwelling in these derisory camps.
The PHR report contains statements alluding to the conditions of the refugee camps in Bangladesh as “unconscionable.” For the duration of their stay in the makeshift refugee camps, the Rohingya Muslim ethnic minority remains stateless and in a state of utmost poverty. The report also reveals that the child malnutrition rate at the Rohingya camps is approximately 18.2 percent. As a comparison, the report offers a figure signifying that the child malnutrition rate in Haiti after the recent earthquake is approximately 6 percent. Furthermore, the Rohingya Muslim group has never received external aid. Their plight is largely overlooked, allowing for their continued mistreatment.
The ill treatment of the Rohingya Muslims has lead to the group’s becoming the most persecuted peoples on Earth. They have been fleeing from their homeland of Myanmar since the 1970’s to escape discrimination and deprivation of civil and political rights. Since the beginning of the exodus out of Burma, over 300,000 Rohingya sought freedom in Bangladesh. However, human rights groups and the UN have seen a significant backlash against the Rohingya population and the Bangladeshi government has taken affirmative steps to deter further immigration.
Bangladesh has been exacting a significant crackdown on Rohingya Muslims who for decades have been residing as unregistered residents in various camps in Bangladesh. Current practices include the systematic arrest and expulsion of unregistered Rohingya Muslims by Bangladeshi authorities. There have also been accounts of Bangladeshi police forcing Rohingya Muslims to re-enter Myanmar, where the ethnic minority has faced its most severe oppression and persecution.
The acts of Bangladeshi authorities signify a flagrant violation of the Rohingya Muslims’ human rights. The UN has yet to respond with a possible reaction to the illegal acts of the Bangladeshi government.
For more information, please see:
Al-Jazeera – Refugees ‘starve’ in Bangladesh – 10 March 2010
AsiaNews – Bangkok denies mistreatment allegations by Rohingya refugees – 04 February 2009
Yahoo! News – Rohingya refugees ‘starving to death’ in Bangladesh – 10 March 2009
