By Susannah Savage
Doctors Without Borders has recorded 160 cases of
pregnant rape victims between August 2017 and February 2018 in the vast
refugee camps in Bangladesh. That number is expected to rise dramatically.
UKHIA, Bangladesh — For the thousands of Rohingya
refugees who fled a violent crackdown in Burma, a new crisis looms: The babies
conceived in rape are due soon.
Some 13,500 Rohingya women suffered sexual violence as
they fled from their homes and made their way to Bangladesh, according to the
United Nations Population Fund, or UNFPA.
“The peak of rape was August, so we’re expecting to see a
surge of women delivering this month,” said Daniella Cassio, a midwife and lead
coordinator on sexual gender-based violence with Doctors Without Borders.
Already struggling to meet the basic needs of the growing Rohingya population —
and grappling with aid shortages and the impending monsoon season — groups like
Doctors Without Borders and Save the Children are scrambling to prepare for the
births.
Since August, around 700,000 Rohingya have fled into
Bangladesh from Rakhine state in Burma, also known as Myanmar. A Muslim
minority; the Rohingya have lived under increasingly repressive measures for
decades, but last year the violence escalated: Refugees allege the Burmese
military burned down whole villages, torturing people and raping women and
girls in the process.
“They target those between 13 and 25,” said Roksana
Akter, a midwife working for Doctors Without Borders who specializes in victims
of sexual violence. In November, the Burmese military released a report denying
all accusations of rape and killings by their security forces.
Madina Khatun, 25, said she realized she was pregnant as
soon as she reached Bangladesh. A few months earlier, her husband had been
abducted from their village. She said she believed her widow status made her
easier prey for the “military man” who raped her.
She gave birth to her daughter Rosina in her shelter in
the overcrowded camp, without help from family or a midwife.
“It’s a lot of suffering to feel, a lot of shame,” she
said.
Khatun takes comfort in knowing she was not the only one.
Many women were raped, she said. “It is not only my fate.”
Kutupalong, the Rohingya camp in southern Bangladesh
where Khatun now lives, is the most densely populated refugee camp in the
world. Conditions are dire. Some families, particularly those with many
children, struggle to get enough food.
In these circumstances, the exceptionally high birthrate
in the camps — 50,000 babies are expected to be born in 2018, according to Save
the Children — is straining already-overstretched health services. The boom in
babies born from rape could easily lead to a health-care crisis, Cassio said.
Preparation for this boom is difficult. Because of the
stigma attached to being unmarried and pregnant, organizations do not have
exact figures for the number of pregnancies resulting from rape. It is not
uncommon for rape victims in the camps to hide their pregnancies, and around 80
percent of pregnant Rohingya women give birth at home, according to estimates
by Doctors Without Borders, which means many births go undetected.
Families often give unwanted babies away to relatives or
neighbors in the community, especially childless couples, according to Doctors
Without Borders, UNFPA and Save the Children. Some babies are abandoned on
doorsteps.
Many abandoned children have been brought to the Doctors
Without Borders maternity clinic in Kutupalong.
“We don’t have the facility or the space to keep these
babies,” Cassio said. The babies stay in the clinic for a few days, but then
they are passed on to Save the Children, which has created an informal foster
care system that places babies with other Rohingya families. But without the
backing of the Bangladeshi government, it will become increasingly difficult to
sustain this system as the numbers rise throughout May, according to Save the
Children spokeswoman Daphnee Cook.
Rohingya women facing an unwanted pregnancy have few
choices in the camps. Clinics offer an emergency contraceptive up to five days
after intercourse as well as abortions before 12 weeks, known as menstrual
regulation. Many women either do not get to a clinic at all or are too late
when they do. Desperate, the women or their families take matters into their
own hands — sometimes with deadly consequences.
Akter, the midwife, recalled the one patient’s case. Her
family brought her to the clinic and said she had abdominal pain. They told
Akter she was married.
During her exam, the midwife found a broken stick lodged
in the girl’s uterus. Two days later, she died.
Her family later admitted the girl was unmarried and had
been raped; to “save her,” they paid a local woman to carry out an illegal
abortion, Akter said.
Aside from medical complications, pregnant rape victims
face myriad other risks.
“If you’re unmarried and raped your future is almost over
in terms of your social acceptability,” said Caroline Gluck, a spokeswoman for
the U.N.’s refugee agency. “You’re tarred, damaged goods.”
As a result, many families hastily arrange marriages for
unmarried girls and women who are pregnant through rape. Save the Children and
UNICEF have reported an increase in child marriage in the camps.
Aid groups in the camps have launched campaigns to avoid
that outcome. They also try to identify victims of sexual violence to make it
easier for them to come forward. Pregnant rape victims who have been cast out
by their family and are in danger of violence or isolation are referred to safe
houses, where they can stay until the end of their pregnancies.
Even then, their ordeal is far from over.
“These women are probably some of the most in need of
psychological support,” said Allison Fog, a psychologist with Doctors Without
Borders. “They are severely traumatized.”
Read also:
These orphaned brothers escaped a massacre. Now they have
to survive a refugee camp. https://lnkd.in/g9MXA_4
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‘Blood flowed in the streets’: Refugees from one Rohingya
hamlet recount days of horror https://lnkd.in/gQRkFEK
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Fake news on Facebook fans the flames of hate against the
Rohingya in Burma https://lnkd.in/gkm64kh
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