Eight-year-old Sohida was in a playground when fire raged through her home in a Rohingya refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. She was in danger when she saw the fire and people running and shouting all around her. With her heart racing from fear, Sohida joined the fleeing crowd and ended up on the roadside as the night set in. A stranger gave her some food and she spent the night out in the open. For one so young, Sohida has already seen too much tragedy. Her parents were killed during a wave of unspeakable violence and brutality that forced over 700,000 Rohingyas to flee from their homes in Myanmar in 2017. Under the care of a religious leader from her community, Sohida is among the almost one million Rohingya refugees who now live in refugee camps across the border in the Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.UNICEF Bangladesh/2023/Sujan
The morning after the fire, Sohida has made it to a temporary UNICEF shelter. “I was afraid of getting burnt and dying in the fire,” says a shaken Sohida. A social worker at the UNICEF shelter counsels Sohida and other children traumatized by the fire. They pay special attention to children separated from their families in the chaos. Sohida is now reunited with her foster father but challenging days are still ahead as they don’t have a place to live.
Homeless once more Sohida is one of 12,000 Rohingya refugees – half of them children – who lost their shelter homes in the fire. Several facilities that provide critical services to refugee children and their families have also been destroyed. Among these are over 20 learning centres, at least one nutrition centre, and several sanitation facilities. UNICEF dispatched two mobile medical teams to provide emergency medical aid to injured refugees. UNICEF has also provided dignity kits to help families maintain their hygiene and sense of dignity in a desperate situation where they have lost everything of what little they owned. The dignity kits contain soap, toothbrush and toothpaste, and other critical hygiene items such as sanitary pads.UNICEF Bangladesh/2023/Spiridonova
As the long road to recovery and rebuilding now begins, the Rohingya refugees continue to rely entirely on humanitarian assistance for protection, food, water, shelter and health. For UNICEF, the priority is to repair and rebuild damaged facilities so that children like Sohida can go back to school and can be given essential healthcare, nutrition and sanitation services.UNICEF/UN0796337/Miraz/AFP
This is a summary of what was said by Johannes van der Klaauw, UNHCR Representative in Dhaka, Bangladesh – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at today’s press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
GENEVA, 7 March 2023 – UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and partners are calling on the international community to redouble efforts for sustained financial support and solutions for Rohingya refugees and the Bangladeshi communities that are hosting them as the dire situation enters its sixth year.
Under the leadership of the Bangladeshi authorities, the 2023 Joint Response Plan for the Rohingya Humanitarian Crisis calls for $876 million to reach 1.47 million people. The Joint Response Plan brings together 116 partners, nearly half of them national organizations from Bangladesh.
The Plan, which was launched today, aims to help some 978,000 Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar and on the island of Bhasan Char, and 495,000 Bangladeshis in neighbouring communities, with food, shelter, health care, access to drinkable water, protection services, education, as well as livelihood opportunities and skills development.
Every day, the nearly one million Rohingya women, children and men that fled from violence and persecution in Myanmar for Bangladesh wake up in a chilling fog of uncertainty about their futures. They are desperate to return to their homes in Myanmar, which are currently out of reach, and instead live in extremely overcrowded, and sometimes dangerous conditions in refugee camps, relying almost entirely on humanitarian assistance for their survival.
While the situation has become protracted, the needs of refugees remain urgent. Women and children, who make up more than 75 per cent of the targeted refugee population, face higher risks of abuse, exploitation, and gender-based violence. More than half of the refugees in the camps are under 18, their futures on hold.
Since the onset of this humanitarian crisis in 2017, the Government of Bangladesh and local communities, with aid agencies, have been quick to respond to arriving refugees in what remains the world’s largest refugee camp. However, as global displacement continues to rise, so does the risk that the needs of Rohingya refugees and surrounding host communities will be forgotten.
With decreased funding, refugees stand to face even more challenges in their daily lives in terms of proper nutrition, shelter materials, sanitation facilities and livelihood opportunities.
The lack of funds has already forced the World Food Programme to cut its lifesaving food assistance to all Rohingya living in the camps; despite concerted humanitarian efforts, 45 per cent of Rohingya families are not eating a sufficiently healthy diet and malnutrition is widespread. These ration cuts are likely to result in higher malnutrition rates, deteriorating health, school dropouts, increased incidents of child marriage, child labour and gender-based violence.
It is therefore vital to ensure continued funding and support to be able to deliver life-saving and life-sustaining assistance to the camp population while also investing in education, skills training and livelihood opportunities, allowing refugees to partially fulfil their basic needs with their own means. The relocation of some 30,000 Rohingya to the island of Bhasan Char needs to be complemented by significant investment in communal livelihood initiatives as a prerequisite for the viability and sustainability of the project.
The combination of prolonged displacement and deteriorating camp conditions has prompted an increasing number of refugees to resort to dangerous boat journeys to seek a better future. Last year alone, more than 3,500 Rohingya attempted high-risk boat journeys across the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal. Sadly, 10 per cent lost their lives or went missing.
The solutions to the Rohingya crisis ultimately lie within Myanmar. Many Rohingya refugees continue to express their desire to return home when conditions allow, yet currently there is no prospect for a safe, dignified and sustainable return in the immediate future. Hence, steadfast support from the international community remains crucial to support efforts by Myanmar to develop conditions conducive for return and to uphold the Rohingya right to return, while also supporting delivery of life-saving assistance and effective protection to refugees in the camps until they can return, with their rights ensured.
Given its geography, annual cycles of heavy monsoon rains and cyclones pose substantial risks to refugees in camps and host communities. Among the objectives of the Joint Response Plan, in coordination with the Government of Bangladesh, will be to strengthen disaster risk management and combat the effects of climate change through reforestation and promoting the use of renewable and cleaner energy sources. The provision of cooking gas, which has significantly eased pressure on the environment, requires significant funding. B-ROLL: https://media.unhcr.org/Share/372v31o3e0y4nb04x2216gsjy86x2y3d Link to photos: https://media.unhcr.org/Share/q5xv8lsd31c2u7f08pwifguln084lk43
For more information on this topic, please contact:
> In Bangladesh, Regina de la Portilla, [email protected], +88 01847 327 279 > In Bangkok, Babar Baloch, [email protected], +66 80 086 5611 > In Geneva, Matthew Saltmarsh, [email protected] +41 79 967 99 36
Author: UNHCR By Kristy Siegfried in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh
Samia has spent five of her 14 years living in Kutupalong – the largest and most densely populated refugee settlement in the world.
The series of camps that make up the settlement were carved out of the forest in southern Bangladesh in 2017 to shelter hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees fleeing violence in western Myanmar’s Rakhine State. Nearly one million people are now crammed into an area of just 17 square kilometres. Bamboo shelters throng the hillsides and narrow roads teem with pedestrians, rickshaws, humanitarian vehicles and traders. It is no wonder that Samia looks skyward for a sense of peace.
“When I see a flock of birds flying nearby, I feel good,” she says. “I like the sound of the birds.”
After arriving in Bangladesh, following a traumatic journey from Myanmar, Samia was dismayed to see the forest being destroyed as trees were cleared to make way for shelters.
“When I first came here, I saw people kill wild animals when they entered the camps. They cut the trees and threw them away to cultivate the land. And people used to litter everywhere.”
“Climate change means it’s too hot during the summer and too rainy during the monsoon.”
Thanks, in part, to her efforts and those of other young Rohingya refugees in Kutupalong, attitudes towards wildlife and the surrounding forest are starting to change.
Samia belongs to one of five youth groups in the camps that, along with five similar groups in the surrounding host community, have received training on environmental issues from UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and its partner organization, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). They have learned about the links between destroying trees and vegetation and the climate crisis that increasingly impacts their daily lives.
“Climate change means it’s too hot during the summer and too rainy during the monsoon,” says Samia. “I’ve seen with my own eyes shelters being broken by landslides and people being injured.”
Last year, the youth groups were asked to identify environmental issues affecting their section of the camp and to come up with their own solutions to them. Samia jumped on the opportunity to educate her family, friends and neighbours about the importance of protecting trees and local wildlife that wanders into the camp. She and the rest of her group run awareness-raising sessions with children, adults and local leaders like imams.
“I tell them, ‘If you let the trees grow, you will get shade and sit peacefully under them.’ I tell them not to kill the animals because they benefit us.”
Southern Bangladesh is extremely vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The refugees’ makeshift shelters, many of them built on deforested, unstable hillsides, provide little defense against tropical storms of increasing intensity. Last year alone, flooding and landslides forced some 24,000 refugees to abandon their homes and belongings and 10 refugees died during heavy monsoon rains.
“We are witnessing climate change every day,” says Mohammed Rofique, 18, who belongs to another youth group. “But the big countries are not seeing it; they are the ones who need to be aware. They need to stop cutting trees. Here, we’re trying to save our trees and save nature.”
Rofique’s group is trying to improve waste management and the shortage of bins in their part of the camp, to reduce pollution and the clogging of drains and canals.
“People used to throw their rubbish everywhere. It smelt really bad, and it was unsafe for the children,” he says. “Rubbish used to block waterways so when it rained, it flooded and spread waste around the camp.”
As well as making and distributing bins made from bamboo, the group has planted gardens in open areas where people used to throw their rubbish.
Besides the obvious environmental benefits, Ehsanul Hoque, who works with UNHCR’s environment unit, points out that the youth groups are equipping young people in the camps with problem-solving and leadership skills, and giving them a sense of purpose in a place where there are very few opportunities to access higher education or livelihoods. “We’re letting them know that they can [make a difference]. You can talk to your family, your neighbour, you can start with yourself.”
UNHCR works with partners and refugee volunteers to regreen the camps and restore the ecosystem by planting thousands of trees, shrubs and grasses, restoring waterways, and distributing Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) to all households as an alternative to firewood.
Samia says she has persuaded her younger brothers to stop throwing stones at birds and that other refugees are receptive to the group’s messages about protecting the environment.
“Some people don’t want to listen to us, but I truly believe that, gradually, their viewpoint will change,” she says. “At the end of the day, I feel good thinking that I raised awareness in my community.”
Recently, when a large snake was found in her block of the camp, some of her neighbours wanted to kill it, she says. “But others said, ‘We don’t need to, we can take it to the forest and release it’. So they put it in a big jute bag and carried it there.”
Author: WFP | As told to Atanu Sarma. Edited by Antoine Vallas
Mohammed Yakub is 25 and has a 18-month-old son, Hujaifa Islam. WFP/Antoine Vallas Photo: WFP/Antoine Vallas
Four years into the Rohingya displacement crisis, 96 percent of the refugees in the Cox’s Bazar area of Bangladesh depend entirely on humanitarian assistance. That’s close to 900,000 people, 600,000 of whom live in Kutupalong, the largest refugee camp in the world, having fled violence in Myanmar.
We caught up with Yakub, a resident who is keen for the world not to forget the plight of the Rohingya. Currently, less than half of the US$943 million required for the overall Rohingya refugee response this year has been received. Rohingya communities, which this year alone have suffered unprecedented floods, a consequence of climate change, and devastating fires, need more support than ever.
People fleeing their homes in Myanmar reach Cox’s Bazar, in August 2017. Photo: WFP/Saikat Mojumdar
I am Yakub and I am Rohingya. I am from Rakhine state, Myanmar. Four years ago, in August 2017, our village was attacked, my neighbours’ houses were burned, and then mine. We ran west because there was no other direction.
I had no choice but to leave the land where I was born. Heading to Bangladesh took all our energy. We crossed mountains, muddy lands, and swam across streams.
Yakub shops for his monthly groceries in a WFP retail outlet. WFP’s outlets are stocked with staple items such as lentils, rice, vegetable oil, as well as fresh fruits and vegetables procured locally. WFP/Nihab Rahman
While fleeing, we were starving for many days. We ate banana leaves, drank water from canals. We didn’t have any money. The Government of Bangladesh welcomed us, the Bangladeshi people brought us cold water and food, and then NGOs started helping us. When we finally arrived in Kutupalong camp, we cut bamboo and built a shelter with tarpaulin… then we received food from the World Food Programme (WFP). Vehicles started to move and the camp got more organized. Only then did we feel some peace of mind.
Kutupalong in early 2017 was known as the ‘makeshift site’. Photo: WFP/Shehzad Noorani
I miss the places that made me feel at home in Myanmar. I miss sitting under the shade of the large tamarind trees, chatting with my friends. I miss the picnics in our garden. I miss our mosque, I miss the bamboo bridge that crossed the canal where we used to watch time go by.
Four years ago, we were getting rice, lentils and oil from WFP. Now we receive e-vouchers and we can buy fresh fruits, vegetables. Thanks to assistance from Bangladeshis and people from foreign countries, things have gotten better over the years. But life in Kutupalong camp isn’t easy. Our houses are small, the streets get muddy, too many people live here. Everywhere is crowded. [Just this year] we’ve had fires and floods.
We never thought we would be living in houses of tarpaulin. Some people are keeping small gardens, the camp is getting greener; I like the fresh air breezing from the trees in the evening. But here will never be like Myanmar. I miss home.
Yakub is calling for ‘continued support’. Photo: WFP/Antoine Vallas
My best memory of my four years in the camps was learning to take pictures and videos with a phone. I had never known how to use a mobile phone before. In 2018-19 WFP organized a storytelling training for a group of us. I have enjoyed capturing interesting and charming scenes from daily life, and looking at them in my free time. I love being able to share the stories of our people, our community, and my own story with the world. I would like to be a renowned journalist one day, and tell the forgotten story of the Rohingya.
I want to thank the world for helping us in the past four years. We can eat well, but most educational activities are suspended. We need continued support for food and education, and to give us a chance to safely go back to Myanmar.
As we start our fifth year in Kutupalong refugee camp, with the same challenges and the same worries, I am asking you not to forget us.
WFP’s food assistance to Rohingya refugees is now delivered entirely through e-vouchers, which can be used by refugees to buy staple foods and fresh local fruits and vegetables from a network of retail outlets across the camps. The programme is funded by generous contributions from Australia, Canada, the EU, Japan, France, the United Arab Emirates, the United States Agency for International Development (Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance), Switzerland, the World Bank, as well as private donors.
UNICEF Bangladesh/2023/Sujan
UNICEF Bangladesh/2023/Spiridonova
UNICEF/UN0796337/Miraz/AFP
Caption: More funding is needed for skills training and livelihood projects like one that is supporting refugees and host communities to grow bamboo for building and stabilizing hillsides. © UNHCR/Kamrul Hasan
