By Bangkok Post
Heavy fighting going on between #AA rebels
& #Myanmar's brutal Army #BIA, civilians are not spared as usual. Read: https://t.co/uZrU1SS4xu https://t.co/7fKYJJ3WH5
Two years on, Asia is no closer to ending its
worst refugee crisis in decades. Over 900,000 Rohingya are in Bangladesh alone,
including 759,000 who fled a campaign of violence by the Myanmar military in
Rakhine state that began in August 2017. Hundreds of thousands had already left
in earlier episodes of violence, to Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia, as well
as in India and further afield. This is an Asian crisis, but Southeast Asia
should show stronger leadership.
Southeast Asia's leaders will come together
on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly this month and during
the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Summit in November. Asean
has been one of the few actors able to engage the Myanmar government since
2017. The region's leaders must show compassion for the Rohingya and push
Myanmar to take steps to end the violence, discrimination and persecution that
forced out the Rohingya. Otherwise this tragedy will continue.
Despite #Bangladesh #FM Dr. @AKAbdulMomen
said; "It is #Myanmar's duty to convince their peoples, we will not force
them to go back," the situation has been created in camps is more than
"FORCE REPATRIATION". Read: https://t.co/zR7tF3npDv
As a medical humanitarian organisation
providing health care to Rohingya in Malaysia, Myanmar and Bangladesh, Medecins
Sans Frontieres (MSF) witnesses the daily struggles they face. In Bangladesh
and Malaysia, the Rohingya do not have refugee status and need some form of
temporary legal stay. In Myanmar, they are denied citizenship and treated as
foreigners. Statelessness is the root of their vulnerability.
In Malaysia, MSF treats Rohingya patients
badly injured in work accidents who are deterred from seeking medical care at
public hospitals due to fear of being reported to immigration. Yet recent
research demonstrates that including refugees in the legal workforce could add
millions to gross domestic product and tax revenue, as well as create jobs for
Malaysian citizens. The Pakatan Harapan manifesto promised legal status and
work rights to refugees; the government should fulfil these commitments.
Malaysia can lead by example on the question of status, by granting Rohingya
some form of temporary status to stay in the country legally.
In Bangladesh, MSF teams see how the Rohingya
languish in squalid camps, unable to build a future for themselves with formal
education or work. Bangladeshi generosity is wearing thin and refugees in the
camps face growing curtailment of rights. They are barred from independently
accessing public health facilities due to movement restrictions, and there are
a lack of specialised services for mental health and sexual and gender based
violence, despite high needs. The only legal avenue to reach healthcare
providers in Cox's Bazar is through referrals by humanitarian actors, such as
MSF.
Rohingya in Bangladesh and Malaysia tell MSF
that they feel suspended in time, unable to move beyond daily survival simply
because of their identity. They say that while they dream of returning home,
they currently see no pathway to a better life there. In Myanmar, the situation
continues to worsen. Since January 2019, an upsurge in fighting between the
military and the Arakan Army, an ethnic Rakhine insurgent group, has displaced
tens of thousands. This new wave of violence is affecting all communities. A
curfew and restrictions on humanitarian assistance have been imposed across
central and northern Rakhine.
In addition, the estimated 550,000-600,000
Rohingya still in Rakhine state endure discriminatory restrictions on freedom
of movement, which limit their access to basic services, such as health care.
In northern Rakhine, it is costly and potentially dangerous for Rohingya to
seek medical treatment: they must pass police checkpoints on the way to
hospital that requires paperwork and bribes.
Meanwhile in central Rakhine, more than
128,000 Rohingya and Kaman (another Muslim minority) have been effectively
detained and segregated in displacement camps for seven years since widespread
violence in 2012. Rohingya cannot travel to seek healthcare on their own; MSF
is required to transport them with a police escort to hospital, where they are
kept in a segregated ward.
Asean's Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian
Assistance on Disaster Management (AHA) is supporting the government's
preparations for repatriation. This is a positive step forward, yet AHA cannot
independently assess the situation in northern Rakhine. As a result, a report
released by AHA in June did not convey the reality on the ground, such as the
limited access to health care.
At the political level, Asean should support
Myanmar to implement the recommendations of the Rakhine Advisory Commission,
led by the late UN secretary-general Kofi Annan. If realised in full, in the
spirit they were drafted, the recommendations will benefit all communities.
The Rohingya -- those still in Myanmar and
those who have fled -- need clarity on their citizenship rights. Asean can
engage Myanmar at a technical level on issues such as birth registration, while
pushing for a citizenship verification process.
Asean needs to have a broader conversation
with the Myanmar government. Member states should place the exclusion and
discrimination towards the Rohingya at the centre of their discussions. Rakhine
state must stay on the agenda, in Asean meetings and at the UN General
Assembly. In these gatherings, Southeast Asian leaders should say with one
voice that inclusion, not segregation, is the solution.
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Don’t forget to read more below:
Bangladesh gets ‘tougher’ on Rohingya
refugees https://lnkd.in/ginfqMv