Situation Report of the Camp

Since one million Rohingya have taken shelter in the Bangladesh refugee camps, it’s not been as easy to survive as they had thought it would be. The camps are very crowded and the shelters densely built. As the shelters are narrow and small, even sleeping areas are limited.

The first years of refugee life were however relatively good as camp residents felt and appreciated their freedom from atrocities and the genocide perpetrated by the Burmese government. Refugees had livelihood sources to help meet their family needs as well. Moreover, Rohingya activists and youth from the camp were able to raise their voice and refugees also could share their suffering with the international delegations visiting in those days.

However, there was a dramatic change in the camp conditions that took place after Rohingya people gathered to commemorate the 2nd anniversary of 25th August in Bangladesh, in 2019. The purpose of gathering was only to make collective prayer and hold a ”Going Home” campaign but the government of Bangladesh understood this in a negative way and shut down the internet for one year, until the first ICJ hearing was held.  Since then, Rohingya have struggled with a tough situation in the camps.

After the 2019 gathering, Rohingya first lost internet access. Then, lots of Rohingya volunteers lost jobs as some of the NGOs left the camp due to the high level of restrictions. Thereafter, fencing the camp was started and other sorts of restrictions too, so refugees can’t go out of the camp. Rohingya were not allowed to run shops or markets in the camps.

Other bureaucratic restrictions include: limits on Rohingya volunteers’ salary (CiC said, “Skilled volunteer must pay only 10,000 tk (125$) per month), Rohingya can’t use Bangladesh sim card, Rohingya can’t run private centers for formal education. A CiC permission letter is required if anyone needs to travel to the city for a medical treatment purpose but It is not easy to get the permission. This is why refugees were feeling like birds in a cage: because we are within a concentration camp where people can’t move freely, breath freely and we need to get checked by the check post authority If we want to leave the camp.

Therefore, this uncomfortable condition has made all the refugees disappointed and mentally disturbed. Beside all these, many of the Rohingya have been forced to involve in immoral activities since the Bangladesh government cut off all the regular livelihood sources in the camp. This policy has increased criminal activities and illegal business in the camp. Consequently following such tragedy, 5% of Rohingya have been sent to jail.

According to the Bangladesh government and its people, Rohingya are provided food so they don’t need to earn money– which is totally baseless. Receiving a monthly ration doesn’t fullfil the complete needs of a family. We are only receiving rice, oil, beans and other small numbers of basic groceries but yet every family has more needs remaining, which is why refugees have to work.

Initially, the Bangladeshi people focused on our emergency, a generous gesture which can’t be forgotten, but as the time passed, the host community has been promoting some misperceptions against Rohingya. Many Bangladeshi people think Rohingya are trying to stay here and that we don’t have wish to go back home. We Rohingya could be harassed if people or authorities see us wearing fine clothes on our body, mobile phone in our hand and with money in our pocket, because they assume refugees don’t deserve such normal things.

We havent seen a single improvement in our situation. In fact, camp life is getting worse day to day. Everyone knows, the Bangladesh government was building a new camp on a new-born Island (Bhasan Char) since two years ago. After they finished building in the Island, the government announced that 10% of the Rohingya from CXB camp will be relocated there. The Bangladesh government has failed to make the people relocate there and got frustrated about it.  They saw the Rohingya assume that living in CXB camp is better than moving to the Island. Therefore, Government has started persecuting refugees indirectly by making it harder to live in the CXB camp. On the other side, they were claiming many facilities would be available if anyone is relocated there.  People were feeling pressured to be relocated there.

For two years, refugees in the camp are going through more hardship than they ever faced in Myanmar. It is true that the Myanmar government was torturing Rohingya physically but Rohingya are now being tortured mentally as the Bangladesh government has created a toxic environment, where no one wants to survive at any cost. Since Rohingya have not succeeded in raising their voices, the authorities are directed from high levels of the Bangladesh Government while also multiple gangs have been disturbing Rohingya in the camp. So, Rohingya are being tortured both physically and mentally.

If anyone raises their voice against the Bangladesh government about their persecution, he could be arrested: so mostly people stay silent, even after seeing a refugee being persecuted.  One could be killed, kidnapped or tortured if he/she goes against the gangs in the camp. Now you can imagine how much difficulty Rohingya people are going through.

A community which has nothing in the name of ”Rights” is facing atrocity daily in the camp. According to on the ground observation, people in the camp are loosing hope that either the Bangladesh government or the international community will bring them closer to justice. Rohingya have been here almost five years, and they have been struggling for rights for more than 70 years. Even I myself feel that I can’t breathe freely in the camp while I am asked lots of questions during crossing the checkpoints in the camp. When I fear to bring out my mobile phone, when I fear to raise my voice for truth, I have to worry about my own life when we are here to save our lives together.

When the situation worsens in the camp, we reach the stage where we cannot tolerate any more. People are in search of ways to leave from the camps. As a result, hundreds of Rohingya people have moved to India by paying a amount of money to a broker.  Some of them have had to face arrest and been send to jail. At the same time, thousands of people have left for Malaysia by small boat, and hundreds of people have lost their lives on the open sea through such a dangerous journey.  After this, they faced rejection from the Malaysian government which is why they have to float over the sea for one month.

When people see the journey is so tough and dangerous, brokers find another way which is overland and travelers have to cross Myanmar and Thailand to reach Malaysia. But this way is also harder as many of the Rohingya have been arrested by the Myanmar authorities. Many of them have been sent back and some of them are facing prison for illegally travelling. When I see this thing, it makes to feel how we our community is being scattered.

For the time being, the situation in the camps has become very strict and this is the reason that we can see the relocation numbers are increasing, with Rohingya going to the Bhasan Char Island as people can’t see anything in the Cox’s Bazar camp except hardship. Over time, we have even lost the rights to teach our children since the Bangladesh government banned all the community run centers. We think that future of our next generation is being destroyed by the Bangladesh government. In short, If i summarized things happening in the camp, we can find: illegal arrests, extortion of money, blocking refugee voices, restricting free movement,  inhuman treatment of refugees, snatching of income sources and frequent deadly fire accidents. Most of the people in the camp think that the several recent fire incidents are not happening naturally but were set by someone or some group for personal benefit or possibly as a for of pressure on Rohingya to relocate. As I mentioned above, people are still leaving the camp for Malaysia though the journey is not safe for them.  Reportedly most of these travelers are young Rohingya boys and girls, and it is also heard that most of the girls are being raped during of their journey.