Asia's governments must put politics aside to protect the lives of Rohingya people.
Hamida* (40) and Runa* (3) live in the Rohingya Refugee camps in Bangladesh and attend Save the Children's clinic
WE STAND SIDE BY SIDE WITH CHILDREN IN THE WORLD'S
TOUGHEST PLACES.
Asia's governments must put politics aside to protect the lives of people in desperate situations
Last week some 300 Rohingya men, women, and children washed up on the shores of Indonesia's Aceh province. More than half of them were girls under the age of 18.
Starving and desperate, they had spent the past seven months on the open waters of the Andaman Sea, looking in vain for a safe harbor. The survivors said at least 30 people had died on the perilous journey. Another three – one young woman and two young men - have already perished from exhaustion and malnutrition since disembarking.
For Rohingya, this is sadly nothing new, but rather a nightmarish history that keeps repeating. This year, hundreds have been left stranded on overcrowded and squalid boats across Asia. The governments of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations have turned their backs on them, closed their borders, ignored their plight, and refused to let boats disembark, leading to scores of deaths.
Tellingly, the boat that landed in Aceh last week was rescued by Indonesian fishermen, not the Indonesian authorities.
Back in 2015, when hundreds of Rohingya people lost their lives at sea in what is now infamously known as the Asian boat crisis, ASEAN vowed to never again abandon them to the sea.
Sadly, recent events have exposed the hollowness of those commitments. Ahead of another sailing season when refugees will once again take their chance to cross the sea in search of safety, South and Southeast Asia's leaders must make a collective decision to choose lives over politics.
Since January at least 2000 refugees have been stranded on boats in the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal. The vast majority are Rohingya have fled the uncertain future and day-to-day drudgery of the refugee camps in Bangladesh.
Fifteen-year-old Kamal* lives with his brother, Abdul* (12), his grandmother, Gulsan* (62) and grandfather Rashid* (65) in the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Kamal’s parents and five of his siblings were killed when violence erupted in Myanmar three years ago, causing more than 700,000 Rohingya children and adults to flee to Bangladesh in search of safety. Kamal was hit on the head and still needs medical care for his injury. Kamal says life in the camp is difficult and that he feels sad because he misses his parents and siblings. He is also concerned about his brother Abdul who has problems with his speech and cannot talk. Gulsan takes care of her grandchildren but she is worried about who will look after them when she is gone. Save the Children provides Kamal and Abdul with psychosocial support through our Child Friendly Space to help them recover from the trauma they have experienced. We have also provided the family with healthcare through our clinics and with rations through our food distributions. August 2020 marks three years since 700,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar in the wake of brutal violence which the UN described as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing.” The Bangladeshi government and people welcomed the Rohingya and generously hosted them, averting a potentially catastrophic humanitarian disaster. But now, three years on, the situation for half a million Rohingya refugee children stuck in camps in Cox’s Bazar is bleak, with little freedom of movement, inadequate access to learning opportunities, poverty and serious protection risks including child marriage, child labour, abuse, neglect, exploitation, trafficking – and now the COVID-19 pandemic. The world must not forget the plight of Rohingya refugee children. They want what every child does: a home, an education, a safe place to play and grow. Save the Children is one of the leading International aid agencies in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, having reached a total of 853,140 Rohingya refugees and members of the host community, including over 469,430 children, since the escalation of the crisis in August 2017. Save the Children has more than 1,300 staff and volunteers supporting its Rohingya Response programmes in child protection, access to education, health and nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene services, as well as distribution of shelter and food items. Sonali Chakma / Save the Children
Kamal* (15) lives with his brother, Abdul* (12) and his grandmother in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh
With many Rohingya still traumatized by the brutal violence they faced in 2017, forcing more than 700,000 across the border into Bangladesh, many now relate horrific experiences at sea. Famished, beaten, many are simply killed by the people smugglers who exploit them. At least 140 people are thought to have died since January.
On one boat that washed up in Bangladesh in April, authorities found more than 150 unaccompanied children among the severely malnourished survivors.
One 16-year-old Rohingya girl told us: "We were at sea for almost two months. I saw a man dying and the smuggler threw him overboard. He beat us when we asked him to turn around and go back to Bangladesh. I never thought I would survive."
But while Rohingya suffer, countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand across the region have often ignored their struggle, with some countries even pushing the boats back to sea. This is not only inhumane but a blatant violation of international law. Those that do make it to land face uncertain futures.
All too similar to the 2015 tragedy, it is appalling that governments have failed to live up to the commitments they made then to avoid the same thing happening again.
Despite initiating the so-called Bali Process in 2016 -- a regional anti-trafficking forum to facilitate policy and information sharing on people smuggling and other transnational crimes -- the regional response remains as paralyzed as five years ago.
Member states have mostly failed to trigger the so-called Consultative Mechanism, which could have helped save lives through search-and-rescue missions and the provision of essential aid.
ASEAN has been similarly hamstrung, failing to launch the search-and-rescue operations it committed to in 2012. Nor have any meaningful steps been taken to share responsibility for refugees. In fact, at the July ASEAN summit in Hanoi, at the height of this year's crisis, maritime refugees did not even rate a mention in the post-summit statement.
There is no doubt that refugees will board boats again when the current monsoon season ends. Now is time for leaders of South and Southeast Asia to put politics aside and protect the lives of desperate people.
Hasina* (13) is a Rohingya refugee girl who lives in the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh with her parents and younger brother Monsur* (10). Since arriving in the refugee camps, Hasina* has embraced the opportunity to learn. She now attends a Save the Children learning centre. She loves the learning centre and likes learning English in particular. In Hasina’s* own words, “I wake up very early in the morning and wash my feet and hands. I pray and then go to the Maktab (Islamic school) to learn Arabic. After Arabic learning, I come home and help my mother to prepare breakfast. I eat lentils for breakfast which I dislike very much. I wish we had better food to eat. Back in my village, we had all sorts of food which I very much liked. Sometimes I still feel hungry after eating breakfast, but I cannot ask for any extra as our food has to feed all the family for the month. I then walk with my friend to handicraft learning run by a women’s group in the camps. I have learnt how to sew a leaf and am learning to sew clothes. I hope to be as good at handicrafts as my mother. I really enjoy attending the handi-crafts group and have made good friends. We speak about lots of things at the community group and I enjoy it as girls from different ages go there. We stay there from 9-2pm. Most of the time we talk about our happy time in Myanmar and how our lives were good there in the past. I miss my home so much. After lunch, I go to the Save the Children learning centre. It is located right next to my home and I meet my brother, who attend the shift before me. The teachers at the learning are very nice. I like all subjects but English is my favorite. It is an important language to learn because we do not have access to other languages. If I want to get a job in the future, it is important to be able to speak good English. I am happiest when I am at the learning centre. I have so many friends there and I enjoy learning new things. Save the Children staff are very good to us, they do not beat us or yell at us. I have learnt from going to school to stay happy and if you face anything bad, talk to Save the Children.” Hasina’s father Mohammed Akter* (40) is happy that his daughter is learning other things apart from handicrafts. He is happy that Hasina will be able to be strong and to stick up for herself if she faces any issues. In Mohammed’s* own words, “Our house back in Myanmar was made of clay. I inherited the property from my father. We fled because people were being killed for no reason, and girls were being raped. I have three girls, and I had a feeling that thy might hurt our family. Which is why I fled with my children, to save their lives. Before fleeing, we tried to hide in different villages, but every village we went to, there were the same problems where they were torturing us. It took us 13 days to get to Bangladesh. We had to cross hills and two rivers to get to Bangladesh. Every child of mine was crying during the journey. It was rainy season and we were barefoot. We cut our feet and the children’s legs were swollen. They did not want to walk any more as they were exhausted. We want to go back but only when there is protection and security. We do not want to go back now because we don’t feel is safe. We can sleep in the camp in Bangladesh without any worries, we can walk around the camp which we could not have done back in Myanmar. We are really happy that our children are able to be educated. We could not learn, which is why we have not developed. We want them to learn about the world and get a good job in the future.” Rohingya refugees in the camps in Cox’s Bazar – nearly 1 million people, over half of whom are children – are living in squalid conditions on fragile land, at high risk of cyclones and floods in the annual monsoon. Homes are made from bamboo and plastic, and drainage and electricity is extremely limited. In these precarious living conditions, children are incredibly vulnerable. They are particularly susceptible to illnesses like serious respiratory infections and diarrhoea. Malnourished children are much more likely to die if they contract diarrhoea, sometimes within days. Save the Children is one of the leading International NGOs in Cox’s Bazar, having reached more than 700,000 Rohingya and members of the host community since the start of the crisis. Save the Children has more than 1,800 staff and volunteers supporting our programs in child protection, access to education, health and nutrition, water and sanitation services, as well as distribution of shelter and food items. We are running nearly 100 learning centres for Rohingya children in the camps, reaching over 15,000 children. At the learning centres children aged 4-14 have access to learning opportunities in Rohingya, their mother tongue, together with literacy, numeracy skills and life skills. Kristiana Marton / Save the Children
Hasina* (13) is a Rohingya refugee girl who lives in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, with her parents and younger brother
Governments should end the practice of pushing refugees back to sea, and instead provide aid to those who disembark.
ASEAN must also take a collective approach to the maritime refugee operations that focus on search-and-rescue and share responsibility across borders. The Bali Process countries -- in particular its co-chairs, Australia and Indonesia -- should take urgent action to ensure that they make use of the frameworks that were established in 2016 to protect refugees.
Ultimately, however, this is a crisis that can only be solved by addressing the root causes of the Rohingya migration crisis. Brutally oppressed? for decades, Rohingya are still denied their right to citizenship and documentation in Myanmar.
Harsh restrictions on their movements have confined them to what rights groups have described as "an open-air prison" in Rakhine State. No one has been held accountable for the atrocities committed against them in 2017.
As long as these conditions persist, Rohingya will continue to risk their lives to escape whether from Myanmar or from the refugee camps in Bangladesh.
Myanmar must act to improve the lives of Rohingya, uphold their rights and well-being, and create the conditions that make the safe return of refugees possible.
With the peak crossing time approaching, regional governments have an opportunity to show that they have learned the lessons of the past. Lives are at stake.
We are on the ground ensuring children are safe, protected and learning.
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