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Thomson Reuters Foundation

As Rohingya women struggle to access even the very basics such as food and water in Bangladesh’s overcrowded camps, a flourishing sex trade offers cash in times of desperation.
Four women entered the clean-swept mud hut, took off their black shawls and sat cross-legged on the floor. When asked if they sold sex, the women stirred uncomfortably and were silent.
Later, after cups of tea, the question came up again. The women caught each other’s eyes. Slowly one of them walked across the room to shut the door, another blocked the window. Darkness fell in the small, humid hut and voices turned to whispers.
“If anyone finds out what we do, they will kill us,” murmured 26-year-old Romida.
Watch: What’s driving Myanmar’s Rohingya crisis?


More than 600,000 ethnic Rohingya, a Muslim minority in Myanmar, have fled attacks by the Myanmar army since late August, fleeing across the border to southern Bangladesh in the world’s fastest growing refugee crisis.
In Kutupalong, the biggest camp, the sex industry is thriving. Many of the sex workers are longer term residents of the Bangladeshi camps, but the influx of tens of thousands more vulnerable women and girls is expected to fuel the trade.
“At least 500 Rohingya prostitutes live in Kutupalong,” said Noor, who works as a fixer, but many have lived for years in the camp which was established in 1992. “Recruiters now have their eyes set on the newcomers.”
At least 500 Rohingya prostitutes live in Kutupalong. Recruiters now have their eyes set on the newcomers
Noor, fixer
UN agencies say they have no figures on the numbers of sex workers in the camps to make public.
“It’s hard to come by numbers and we don’t collect data on how many sex workers are in the camps,” said Saba Zariv, an expert on gender-based violence at the UN’s population agency UNFPA.
A recent report from Unicef, the UN children’s fund, said that in the chaotic, unorganised camps, children and youths could fall prey to traffickers and people looking to exploit and manipulate them.
From tight-knit conservative Muslim communities, the Rohingya often turn a blind eye to prostitution.
“People pretend that it doesn’t exist,” said Noor. “The girls meet their Bangladeshi clients outside the camps. They don’t sleep with other Rohingya. Our communities are tight and rumours could spread easily. Each girl wants to appear pure.”
Many of the prostitutes are children who eat no more than one meal a day and don’t attend school. They work secretively without even their parents knowing.
Rena, 18, who has lived in the camp for the past decade was forced to marry an alcoholic two years ago.
How Chinese cash shores up Myanmar’s Rakhine state, despite international condemnation of Rohingya crisis
“He mistreated me and beat me,” she said. Her abusive husband left her when she gave birth to her first son. Feeding her child became impossible.
“That’s when I decided to become a sex worker. I was only 16, but it was out of desperation. I needed money.”
Fourteen-year-old Kamru, who also sells sex, arrived years ago in a previous wave of Rohingya refugees. She has never been able to attend school because her family is too poor.
“The camp is all I remember. I grew up here, but I was always hungry,” said the teenager, who like all the women and girls did not want to reveal her full name.

Sex workers share common traits: poverty, abusive family members and lack of funds make them vulnerable enough to be trafficked into the camp’s sex industry.
“If aid agencies can’t manage to provide people with their basic needs, the risk of trafficking grows – if we can’t establish a sustainable mechanism here and aid tires out, we could see trafficking levels rise,” said Lisa Akero, gender protection specialist at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
Romida had been left hungry and malnourished and saw prostitution as the only way she could survive.
Bangladesh police hunt man who defied ban and married Rohingya Muslim refugee
“I told myself I’d do anything. I didn’t have a choice.” Her first client was a Bangladeshi friend who convinced her to have sex with him for 1,000 taka (US$12).
“He paid good money,” she said. “The going-rate is 200 and my fixer takes half of it.”
The business largely operates by phone calls, with pimps telling the girls where to go and who to see.
On average, Romida has three male clients a week – and dare not risk taking on more for fear of being found out.
“I sometimes travel as far as Cox’s Bazar city, which is a two-hour drive. Whenever I leave the camp, I have to make up excuses. I pretend to be visiting relatives or taking a shift at the market.”
Why the Rohingya will never be welcome in Myanmar
The Rohingya women meet men of all backgrounds – from university students to local politicians.
In a brief phone conversation, Ali, a 23-year-old Bangladeshi student said he sleeps with prostitutes occasionally, but when he eventually marries he would expect his wife to be a virgin. Most clients don’t use condoms, the women said.
“I take birth control injections, but I worry about HIV every day,” said Romida. She has never been tested for sexually transmitted diseases.

Half-an-hour’s drive away from the muddy, chaotic camps, surrounded by green rice paddies, local charity Pulse has set up a safe house for refugees that can host up to 30 women. Due to open in the coming days, the dormitory-style flat is newly refurbished and has a psychologist on site.
“The girls who come here might not want to talk about what is happening in their lives as they could be in danger,” said the shelter’s manager Kurshida Aktar, adding that all vulnerable women are welcome: victims of rape, single mothers and sex workers.
“We’re creating an opportunity for women to rebuild their lives, access basic needs, have an outlet to talk and receive job training,” said Aktar.
World’s biggest refugee camps ranked: Bangladesh prepares to host 800,000 Rohingya as crisis deepens
But the four Rohingya women who agreed to speak were largely unaware of such services.
“We don’t ask about it for fear of being found out,” said Kamru, the youngest of the girls.
As she walks outside the house, she slips into her black burka, covering all but her eyes.
“I have to take it off when I’m with my Bangladeshi clients,” she said. “But in the camp it’s my way to stay anonymous.”


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Rohingya Muslims

‘I worry about HIV every day’: Rohingya women prostituted for US$2 in Bangladesh’s overcrowded refugee camps

Rena, 18, sits in a mud hut with doors and windows closed as she tells her story of working as a prostitute in Kutupalong, Bangladesh. Photo: Thomson Reuters Foundation

Rohingya Muslims, who crossed over from Myanmar into Bangladesh, arrive in a truck after the government moved them to newly allocated refugee camp areas, near Kutupalong, Bangladesh, Sunday, Oct. 22, 2017. More than 580,000 refugees have arrived in Bangladesh since Aug. 25, when Myanmar security forces began a scorched-earth campaign against Rohingya villages. Myanmar's government has said it was responding to attacks by Muslim insurgents, but the United Nations and others have said the response was disproportionate. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

Rohingya Muslim children, who crossed over from Myanmar into Bangladesh, fly kite on a hillock inside a Kutupalong refugee camp, Bangladesh, Sunday, Oct. 22, 2017. More than 580,000 refugees have arrived in Bangladesh since Aug. 25, when Myanmar security forces began a scorched-earth campaign against Rohingya villages. Myanmar's government has said it was responding to attacks by Muslim insurgents, but the United Nations and others have said the response was disproportionate. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

Global child sex tourism ‘has expanded’ as landmark UN-backed study paints grim picture 

Offenders can come from all walks of life, with many perpetrators opportunists and not people who would not consider themselves serial paedophiles. Photo: EPA

Here’s the one man in Myanmar who can end Rohingya misery

Myanmar Senior General Min Aung Hlaing inspects troops. Photo: EPA

Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. Photo: AFP

epaselect epa05291371 Senior General Min Aung Hlaing (R)and Myanmar Foreign Minister and State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi (L) arrive to Naypyitaw International Airport in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, 06 May 2016. Myanmar president U Htin Kyaw, his wife Daw Su Su Lwin and Myanmar Foreign Minister and State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi and Minister of Information Dr Pe Myint left from Naypyidaw International Airport to Laos for the first time in a goodwill visit as Myanmar's new government. EPA/HEIN HTET

In this Thursday, Sept. 7, 2017, file photo, smoke rises from a burned house in Gawdu Zara village, northern Rakhine state, Myanmar. Journalists saw new fires burning Thursday in the Myanmar village that had been abandoned by Rohingya Muslims, and where pages from Islamic texts were seen ripped and left on the ground. (AP Photo, File)

epaselect epa06202499 Rohingya Refugees carry an old man towards the shore of Naf river as people arrive by boats, in Teknaf, Bangladesh, 13 September 2017. Many of the Rohingya fleeing the violence in Myanmar had travelled by boat to find refuge in neighbouring Bangladesh. According to United Nations more than 300 thousand Rohingya refugees have fled Myanmar from violence over the last few weeks, most trying to cross the border and reach Bangladesh. International organizations have reported claims of human rights violations and summary executions allegedly carried out by the Myanmar army. EPA-EFE/ABIR ABDULLAH

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Many of the prostitutes are children who eat no more than one meal a day and don’t attend school. They work secretively without even their parents knowing


Myanmar

‘I worry about HIV every day’: Rohingya women prostituted for US$2 in Bangladesh’s overcrowded refugee camps

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Many of the prostitutes are children who eat no more than one meal a day and don’t attend school. They work secretively without even their parents knowing

Many of the prostitutes are children who eat no more than one meal a day and don’t attend school. They work secretively without even their parents knowing