India’s coast guard found 81 Rohingya survivors, exclusive of 8 dead refugees, crammed onto a damaged fishing boat and tried to arrange for Bangladesh to take them in its camps. Answering this, the Bangladesh government refused to do so, reasoning that they are “under no obligation to shelter 81 Rohingya Muslim refugees adrift for almost two weeks on the Andaman Sea and being assisted by India,” according to Bangladesh Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen.
But Bangladesh has turned the tables on India and said that Bangladesh expects India, the closest country, or Myanmar, the Rohingyas’ country of origin, to accept them. This blatant inhumane act has not only astonished but disappointed many.
In Myanmar, the Rohingya (a Muslim ethnic minority group) have constantly suffered from systematic discrimination, violence, and targeted oppression. Following violent attacks for long periods, the entire community got forced into Bangladesh, thereby increasing Bangladesh’s refugee influx by tenfold.
Villages burnt to the ground, families split, humanity lost, women and girls raped, children killed, the extent of atrocities and barbaric slaughters knew no bounds wherever the Rohingya were concerned.
Severely traumatized and destitute, they were provided shelters in Bangladesh within congested yet sustaining camps. However, improvement in the condition and future of the Rohingya seems bleak.
ALSO READ THIS: DHAKA ASKS OIC TO HELP ROHINGYA REPATRIATION TO MYANMAR
Dependent on aid and charity, the root causes of these refugees’ problems in Myanmar have still not been addressed.
Bangladesh has provided shelter to the lot of Rohingya and helped them in times of need, despite having limited resources and land to host them. More than 900,000 refugees migrated to Bangladesh, according to the UN Refugee Agency.
Battling daily-life issues on a large scale, Bangladesh has tried its best to provide for the refugees and many countries have supported them in the same. But the forlorn state remains and in the never-ending fight for rights, some refugees seem to have given up.
“As grim as the situation is for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh…their prospects back in Myanmar are even worse,” says Joshua Kurlantzick, Senior Fellow for Southeast Asia. Thus, the only way out is in Bangladesh.
