As a student of International Relations, I’m well aware of the Rohingya Refugee issue. Since 27th August 2017, there has been an influx of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya people. Condition of many border side villages including Ghumdhum, Balukhali, Teknaf, Kutupalong turned severely adverse. My hometown Cox’s Bazar is about 40 km distance from these villages. So, I observed the influx of Rohingya people closely.
On 28th August 2017, I rushed there to witness the condition. I am going to depict the condition I saw here. Surprisingly, women and children were in majority among the Rohingya people. It was hard to believe that they were out of food and daily necessities for long. They were crossing the border with their lives in their hand.
While I got to talk with some, I got to know many of their relatives and family members were brutally killed in front of them. They also went through physical and mental torture beyond description.
Imagine how uncertain they were that led them to leave their own country, the condition of children who were usually underfed for more than 4/5 days. Your humanity will help you to understand.
So, in response to our humanity, I along with the friends, from my department of international relations, felt the necessity of helping them within our reach. We managed a living place for around 2000 of Rohingya people from 8th to 10th August in 2017. In creating the living space for them, our honorable faculty members from BUP helped us a lot in meeting the economic needs.
Read: Rohingya Refugee Crisis in Bangladesh
The registered Rohingya refugee camps we probably hear of now was nothing but an illusion. In reality, it was a whole different picture. Now there are many transient living amenities for Rohingya people in places around the border and even inside different villages. Places including Teknaf, Balukhali, Ghumdhum, Kotupalong, Shaplapur, Ukhiya is now vibrant with the footsteps of Rohingya people. The excellent expertise of the Bangladesh Army is praiseworthy in this regard. They are regulating all the transient camps and the movement of Rohingya people with great expertise. The concern of locals and the Government is obvious.
At present, international communities, and non-governmental organizations are also considering the crisis under a significant lens. Needless to mention, over a hundred NGOs and INGOs are working on it including Bangladesh Red Crescent, BRAC, UNHCR, WFP, UNICEF, FAO, IOM, OXFAM, MSF, and so on.
But we are yet to reach a long term solution for this pressing issue. Despite trying several times from the Government of Bangladesh, Myanmar is not showing any sign of interest take them back. If proper steps are not taken, there is no certainty of the crisis in the foreseeable future.
Biography: The author is currently working with Helvetas Swiss Interco operation. His designation is Field Coordinator. Previously, He worked as a Senior Site Officer as well as worked with Handicap International as a Team Leader. He has diversified knowledge on Humanitarian Ground. He has done lots of training, especially Training of Trainers (ToT) on Humanitarian Principles, Emergency Response program, Camp Coordination, and Camp Management training too.
E-mail: ituhin94@gmail.com
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