LettersAs Rohingya refugees mark three years in exile, don’t forget the children who have never seen home

Name: In Indonesia, rescued Rohingya refugees recount tales of being stranded at sea
Uploaded: 2020-08-25T01:00:11.000Z
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Description: In Indonesia, rescued Rohingya refugees recount tales of being stranded at sea

For thousands of Rohingya children, the sprawling refugee camps of Cox’s Bazar are the only life they have ever known

The world will have failed them yet again, if a fourth anniversary of life in exile is allowed to happen

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A newly arrived Rohingya refugee and her child wait at a food distribution line in the Kutupalong refugee camp near Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, in January 2018. More than 75,000 babies have been born in the camps of Cox’s Bazar in the past three years. Photo: AP

Letters

Published: 9:00am, 25 Aug 2020Updated: 9:00am, 25 Aug 2020

Three years ago, over 700,000 Rohingya, including almost half a million children, fled their homes in Myanmar to Bangladesh, leaving everything behind in a bid to escape horrific violence and human rights abuses in Rakhine state. Today marks their third year of forced exile.

Since 2017, more than 75,000 babies have been born in the camps of Cox’s Bazar, where they will have taken their first steps and spoken their first words. All they have learned about Myanmar – their home – will be second-hand, from the stories told to them by their parents. For these children, the sprawling camps of Cox’s Bazaar are the only life they have ever known.

But this is only half the story. On the other side of the border too, in Myanmar, over 30,000 children (mostly Rohingya and some Kaman) have been born across 21 camps since 2012, when these communities were internally displaced by conflict and abuse.

The conditions in which more than 100,000 children now live are a symptom of our collective failure as an international community to protect these children and guarantee their futures in a place they can finally call home.

For Rohingya children to return home, the root causes of their displacement must be addressed. Myanmar should act to immediately address the discrimination, violence and abuse that Rohingya face in Rakhine state and ensure they have equal access to rights including citizenship, freedom of movement and access to essential services.

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In Indonesia, rescued Rohingya refugees recount tales of being stranded at sea

The international community too must continue to fund the humanitarian efforts in Cox’s Bazar and Rakhine state. It is futile to talk about a positive future for Rohingya children if they are not provided with access to education, including up to the university level, health care and other tools necessary to look after their well-being.