Promises Myanmar Never Kept

ummaehabibaaney (37)in #life • 7 years ago

Rohingyas recall previous experiences, to place 13 demands to UNSC for repatriation
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Shanties as far as the eyes can see in Kutupalong Rohingya camp in Ukhia of Cox's Bazar. Risk of deadly mudslide in the monsoon looms over the homes built all over the hillocks that have been denuded. The picture was taken yesterday. Photo: Anisur Rahman
Mohammad Al-Masum Molla, from Cox's Bazar, and Porimol Palma
Nurul Amin had fled to Bangladesh along with his parents in 1991, just as more than 2.5 lakh Rohingya who escaped forced labour, rape and religious persecution in Myanmar.

At only 10, it was his first time as a refugee.

However, having lived in a makeshift camp for about two years in Cox's Bazar, the family returned home in Maundaw of Rakhine on Myanmar authorities' promise of granting them citizenship, something that they had been denied since 1982.

Years went by, but Myanmar did not grant them citizenship. Instead, they were offered national verification card (NVC), popularly known as “embassy card” which means the Rohingya are illegal migrants from Bangladesh.

Rohingya refugees receive bamboos from the UNHCR at Balukhali Rohingya camp in Ukhia upazila of Cox's Bazar. Photo: Anisur Rahman
Nurul, the only son of his parents, still kept his hope alive although he, like all other Rohingyas, faced restrictions on movement and right to property. They also had to pay officials for marriage and even burials.

Then came the military crackdowns in 2012 and 2016 following ethnic conflicts, making life more difficult.

“I could not stay anymore when my house was burnt like those of many others. We fled to Bangladesh to save our lives,” Nurul, father of five children, told The Daily Star, sitting along a road in Kutupalong Friday.

The mega camp in Kutupalong became the world's largest refugee camp in recent times after some 700,000 Rohingya fled the latest military offensive in August last year.

In the earlier waves in 1978 and 1991-92, hundreds of thousands of this persecuted minority community fled, but most of them returned home in the hope of better days. However, many of them had to flee to Bangladesh again and again.

In all, more than 1.1 million Rohingya now live in Bangladesh.