Video Shows Need to Improve Infrastructure,
Provide Services
https://youtu.be/YonbaOvmqlM
(New York) – Bangladesh’s overcrowded, hilly and rain-soaked mega camp for ethnic Rohingya refugees is precarious for everyone, but especially for people with disabilities, Human Rights Watch said today in a new video. More than 700,000 people reside in the camp after fleeing the Myanmar military’s campaign of ethnic cleansing more than a year ago.
“Walking through the camps, we found large numbers of
Rohingya refugees with disabilities,” said Bill Frelick, refugee rights
director at Human Rights Watch. “Many of the people in the camp had acquired
their disabilities from brutal attacks by Myanmar’s military.”
Despite efforts by the United Nations, humanitarian
organizations, and the refugees themselves to build handrails, many walkways
are impassable for people who have difficulty walking. Hussein Ahmad, whose
17-year-old son was shot in the neck during their escape from Myanmar and is
now paralyzed from the waist down, said: “I thank the doctor who gave my son a
wheelchair, but I can’t use it because the roads are very dangerous and keep
getting worse. It is time for my son to study, but he can’t walk, and his life
is being destroyed in front of me.”
Work to shore up the hastily and haphazardly built huts
and other camp structures has been hindered by the Bangladeshi government’s
insistence that the refugees are only staying temporarily and will soon return
to Myanmar. The authorities have resisted developing camp infrastructure that
would suggest a longer term stay. As a result, lighting, accessible toilets,
and proper walkways with handrails that are critically important for people
with disabilities have been slow to develop.
“With such widespread misery and obvious needs for the
Rohingya refugees generally, there is a risk that refugees with disabilities
will be overlooked,” Frelick said. “But this is precisely the time when the
needs of people with disabilities ought to be a priority.”
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