Conditions for the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are "absolute horror," says president of Canadian Rohingya association. Photo courtesy of Anwar Arkani

By Micaal Ahmed

The 655,000 Rohingya refugees who escaped Myanmar in a mass exodus into Bangladesh last year are still living under conditions that are an “absolute horror,” said the president of the Rohingya Association of Canada.

Anwar Arkani spent nearly all of November last year in the camps near the border of Myanmar.

The situation is at risk of becoming a historic catastrophe because of the squalid and unsafe conditions of the refugee camps in Bangladesh, he says.

“If the living situation doesn’t change – drastically – very soon, a lot of people will die,” insisted 49-year-old Arkani. “I’m talking about tens of thousands of people.”

Arkani visited the refugee camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar and Bandarban areas in an effort to help as many people as he could. He told iPolitics in an interview that he saw a reality that “doesn’t really go away from the mind.”

The refugees “need everything,” Arkani said. “You name it, there’s a need — need of food, need of shelter, clothing, medicine, safety, security.”

Canada’s special envoy to Myanmar, Bob Rae said in an interview “it’s a very overcrowded and tough environment for people.” He too has witnessed the situation in Bangladesh.

Rae, who shares Arkani’s concern about the state of the refugee camps, is also warning about the risks the people living in them face.

“One is the possibility of the breakout of an epidemic,” he said. “The second is the risks that will come with bad weather because of the lack of shelter, and because environmentally there is no tree cover. All the vegetation has been cut down, so there will be mudslides. And, the third is the need for much better programming when it comes to, in particular, women’s health and the opportunities for children in terms of education.”

There is also no proper sanitation system, said Arkani. When the rain comes the sewage flows down a line of tents on ground where children are playing.

The Rohingya are a largely Muslim ethnic and religious minority from the Rakhine State in Myanmar. Since the late 1970s, they have faced discrimination from the larger society and the government.

The persecution grew more intense this past summer as the Myanmar security forces forced an exodus from northern Myanmar into Bangladesh. The Myanmar government has said the military campaign was intended to reinstate stability in the region.

In the camps, refugees are also living in fear of human traffickers, Arkani said.The traffickers have abducted people, later selling them off, he said.

“I was shocked to see how insecure the camps are. Anyone can go in and take away anybody and sell them,” said Arkani. “The refugees don’t speak the language, they don’t know the people; they are not brave enough to say ‘No’.”

Arkani says a lot of the refugees are “numb.” He says he would talk to them, in their own language, and they would look at him with blank expressions on their faces. He believes many will need years of trauma counselling to recover from all the horrors they have seen and been through.

Two groups in particular need of care that cannot be provided are orphaned children and the elderly, Arkani said. Many are not registered for aid with the system the Bangladeshi government has established.

“I think the situation remains one of great concern to everybody,” said Rae. “’It’s going to take concerted action by a number of different countries, and all the responsible UN agencies, in order to save lives, and make sure that this situation is never repeated.”

Recently the Myanmar regime has begun a process to repatriate refugees.

The move, however, concerns experts.

“This is at least the third time in my lifetime that we have seen a mass influx of Rohingya into Bangladesh — in the late 1970s, in the mid-1990s and now,” said James Milner, an associate professor of political science at Carleton University. “In each earlier instance, there was promoted or forced return to Myanmar without addressing the root causes of flight or providing safeguards in Myanmar that ensured safety or allowed (Rohingya) to claim (their) rights as citizens,” he said.

“Unless these conditions are addressed, it is very likely that this will not be the last mass movement of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar into Bangladesh.”

According to international law, refugees are to be returned to their homeland only when their safety and security are established and guaranteed, said Howard Duncan, the executive head of the Metropolis International Secretariat, in an interview. “They are not to be returned to situations of danger.

“Many of the Rohingya are now unwilling to return to Myanmar because they do not believe that they will be safe,” he said. “It needs to be established that they are not being forced to return by the Bangladesh government.”

Jamie Liew, an associate professor of law with the University of Ottawa, echoed these concerns.

“Some Rohingya have literally nothing to return to,” she said. “Homes, villages, infrastructure, towns have been burned to the ground and destroyed, and so if the government of Myanmar is interested in reintegration, it means putting up resources to ensure that people have something to return to.”

She also added that the “non-status of the Rohingya” remains one of the biggest issues. “Even if people return, it’s uncertain whether Myanmar will recognize them as their own citizens on paper and what kinds of legal status they will be given,” she said. “Myanmar has claimed that the Rohingya are not citizens and are migrants so that will undoubtedly cause some difficulties in terms of access to different things like healthcare, education and other services if status is not resolved.”

Throughout this crisis, Canada has been urged to do more to help these refugees. There has also been a lot of concern over the relative silence of Aung San Suu Kyi – the de facto leader of Myanmar and an honorary Canadian citizen – over accusations of letting a genocide go on. Some are demanding that the liberals revoke her Canadian citizenship.

“Canada can play leadership role,” said David Sweet, the chair of the Conservative Party of Canada parliamentary caucus and member of the House of Commons subcommittee on international human rights.

He added that while Canada can’t do it all alone, it can lead and convince other nations to take political action to atrocities against the Rohingya.

Conservative MP David Anderson, the opposition critic for International Human Rights and Religious Freedom, reiterated the call for more action by Canada.

“We need our prime minister to take a very strong stand on this issue,” Anderson said. “Because well over half a million people have now been displaced and there is no good solution that’s being suggested.”

Arkani remains disappointed with the Trudeau government.

He wants the Trudeau government to call the mistreatment of the Rohingya a genocide.

“Canada hasn’t done enough. No country can say they have done enough,” he said.

• • •

This story was produced in collaboration with Centretown News and Carleton University.