Rohingya crisis: The story that is still unfolding

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A Rohingya carries a child in a sack and walks through rice fields after crossing over to the Bangladesh side of the border.-AP
A Rohingya carries a child in a sack and walks through rice fields after crossing over to the Bangladesh side of the border.-AP

Bleeding yet bold. Defeated yet daring.Its frame ruptured but its soul, raring to go on.

By Anjana Sankar

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Published: Sat 30 Dec 2017, 9:00 PM

Last updated: Sat 30 Dec 2017, 11:33 PM

2017 has endured conflicts, climate change and corruption. Bullets, bombs and natural disasters have ripped through its ramparts.
Divisive leaders and disruptive elections have splintered it apart. Peace was butchered. But the year weathered it all. It stood there, steady and chin up all through the 365 days.
Bleeding yet bold. Defeated yet daring.Its frame ruptured but its soul, raring to go on.
2017 was all about a fight for survival for thousands of people, all over the world. In Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan and Sudan to name a few. In the tight-rope walk between life and death, many perished. Many others survived.
In Asia, one of the biggest survival stories was that of Rohingya refugees. Persecuted and displaced, they crossed mountains and rivers to live with dignity and without fear in a foreign land.
The teeming thousands who fled their homes to escape the brutal violence of the Myanmar army was one of the most powerful humanitarian stories of 2017. Images of their scared and exhausted faces as they arrived at the Myanmar-Bangladesh border that Khaleej Times live streamed, brought the issue home to the UAE residents. Their gut-wrenching stories we printed gave readers here a first-hand account of the humanitarian crisis snowballing in Bangladesh.

How it all began

It all started on August 25 when reports from Myanmar stated that 12 security officers were killed by Rohingya insurgents from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army. The army reportedly went on a rampage, shooting people, butchering children, raping women and burning villages in the Rakhine province in the North. Thus began one of the biggest exoduses of refugees in Asia, with thousands of stateless Muslims crossing the borders and arriving in Bangladesh on foot and by boat.
According to the UNHCR, more than 620,000 Rohingya refugees arrived in Bangladesh by mid-September. NGOs and the government of Sheikh Hasina were bracing for one of the worst humanitarian crises in South East Asia.
KT in Cox's Bazaar
The outcry against the plight of Rohingya was reaching a feverish pitch in September when Khaleej Times decided to report the matter from ground zero.
When I travelled to Cox's Bazar on September 20, nothing had prepared me for the sheer scale of the crisis I was about to cover.
On the first day, my translator and I travelled to Kutupalong - that houses some of the biggest refugee camps for Rohingya families. The scenes that unfolded as we hit the Teknaf-Cox's Bazaar highway was mind-numbing. On both sides of the road, for long unending stretches, we saw hundreds of Rohingya families lining the streets in small groups. Women, children and the old. Their tattered, impoverished figures had been huddling there since days, hungry and hapless, looking for life-saving aid.
Over the next five days, I saw, heard and reported on some of the most heart-rending stories of pain, loss and hunger. Of murder, rape and destruction. Of hope and optimism.
In Kutupalong, Nayapara and Leda, people crammed themselves into squalid, over-crowded, disease-ridden refugee settlements. Food and clean drinking water were ultimate luxuries. People waded through muddy, inaccessible roads to reach aid. Health and sanitation were deplorable. Violence and trafficking were rampant as scores of women and children arrived unaccompanied.
Shallom Katul, a refugee, said his 15-year-old sister was raped and killed by army men. Sabitha, a 16- year-old said she and her sister were gang-raped while their family members were killed.
Siddique and his friends had to wait for 20 days in Myanmar to board a boat to Bangladesh.
Hunger and fatigue almost killed them. 18-year-old Jamalida said the killers came in the dead of the night and massacred her entire village. They said home was the most unsafe place. Yet there were some who longed to go back. Abdul Mothalab, a 67-year-old Rohingya leader, still hoped Aung San Suu Kyi would stand up for the rights of the Rohingya.

They kept coming...

Even as the tattered infrastructure of Bangladesh was crumbling under the pressure of the unforeseen refugee influx and aid agencies were struggling to meet the staggering numbers, the Rohingya kept coming.
In Teknaf that borders Myanmar, small boats carrying refugees were still arriving. Refugees said they risked everything to cross Naf river to reach the safe shores in Bangladesh. But not all of them made it. More than 200 Rohingya corpses had washed ashore since the start of the crisis on August 25.
International aid is still pouring in, but NGOs say more is needed to cater to this most rapidly expanding refugee crisis. Dubai sent its seventh consignment of relief supplies worth Dh1.22 million to Rohingya on December 10.
The UNHCR has so far flown out Dh8.5 million worth of relief and aid through Dubai's airbridge facility. This is excluding the airlifts and aid that was shipped out as emergency relief.

Crisis complete 100 days

When the crisis reached 100 days, Moh-ammed Abu Saker, UNHCR Spokesperson, told Khaleej Times the latest family counting to gather data on refugees rev-ealed that more than 52 per cent of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are women. "16 per cent of families are single women households. As many as 5,600 families are child-headed, with children taking care of their younger siblings.
"This is the fastest growing refugee crisis in the world. Current humanitarian assistance is not enough. Humanitarian workers and volunteers are working round the clock to help those in need."
The latest crisis response report by the Inter Sector Coordination Group (ISCG), which is coordinating the emergency response and is hosted by IOM (International Organisation for Migration), says 1.2 million refugees are in need of aid in Bangladesh.
The new arrivals of Rohingya since the escalation of crisis has touched 655,000. Providing sanitation, clean water, medical facilities still remain the biggest challenges. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), between November 8 and December 19, 1,841 suspected case-patients with diphtheria were rep-orted, with 22 deaths.

Foot-soldiers of hope

As we turn the wheel of time on another tumultuous year, Rohingya refugees have nothing to cheer about. They still fight disease and hunger every day. With no near political solution, thousands of them will remain homeless. They may end up as refugees for another decade or two. It is a story still unfolding.
While the plight and suffering of this homeless Muslim population has claimed print space in bold, what makes Rohingya the story of the year is their indomitable fighting spirit.
Bruised and battered, they still nurse optimism in the dingy darkness of their refugee shelters. They find strength to survive in the toughest of times. They see a beacon of light across the border where they had a home. They are truly the foot-soldiers of hope. It is the same flame of hope we need to usher in the New Year.
anjana@khaleejtimes.com
 


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