My visit to a Rohingya refugee camp: still no prospects for Rohingyas in Myanmar?

This is an archival post and translation of my 2013 account of visit to a Rohingya refugee camp located in the vicinity of Delhi. While many of the numerical facts remain unchanged, unfortunately the reality is that the overall situation of surrounding the Rohingyas is even grimmer than it was in 2013.

Some time ago I learned about Iranian filmmakers who wanted to shoot a documentary movie about numerous Rohingya refugees from Burma, residing in and in the vicinity of Delhi. I managed to contact them and that’s how our cooperation started, giving rise to my passion for humanitarian affairs. These visits to the refugee camp, or more precisely, refugee village, gave me a lot of food for thought and provided me with a different angle to examine one of the world’s still unresolved problems—statelessness. I have decided to share some of my feelings on the visit to the refugee camp in the context of international law and identity issues in order to bring to light what still remains as a largely unknown problem to the eyes of the world.

The first part of the text is devoted to providing basic facts about the Rohingya people and explaining some legal intricacies of the term “refugee”, while the second is my account of life in a refugee camp located in near India’s capital.

The movie I had a pleasure of starring in tells a story of Rohingya refugees who as a result of their uniqueness were forced by the persecution to flee Burma. They were not only banished, but deprived of all their worldly possessions, the right to lead life free from fear and in some instances even of that most valuable of them all—life itself.

Refugee, a legal definition

Referring to the international agreements and resolutions of international organizations, such as the Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees of 1951[1], a refugee can in simple terms be defined as a person forced to flee from the country of his/her permanent residence out of fear of harassment or loss of life.

The Rohingyas

The Rohingyas are an Indo-European ethnic group actually numbering close to 1.5 million people.  As a result of decades of atrocities committed against them in Burma most of them were violently and mercilessly forced out of Burma’s Rakhine province, which was their home for centuries (in the distant past existing for some time in the independent form of Arakan). In stark contrast with the country’s Buddhist majority population the Rohingyas are mostly practitioners of Islam, have their own distinctive culture and use their own language. Since times unmemorable they were often commonly accused of serving as the “fifth column” of Bangladesh and despite the long history of their residence in Burma often contemptuously termed Bangladeshis.

Rohingyas were traditionally subjected to a variety of special duties, which the rest of Burma’s general populace didn’t have to go through. One of them included routine check-ups of Rohingyas during which whole families were subjected to often humiliating questioning and photographs of all family members were taken. If any of the family members was absent the rest had to undergo severe punishment (often including deportation). This man's family was forced to flee Myanmar after he couldn’t attend such “census” due to his participation in the haj pilgrimage.

The advent of the 20^th century only exacerbated existing tensions as the World War II period witnessed many Rohingya pogroms in Burma. After the military putsch of 1962 in the country, the Rohingyas faced ever intensified discrimination which forced them en masse to flee to Pakistan and Bangladesh. No substantial changes in Rohingya’s legal status took place in Burma during the military rule period.

The present state of affairs prevailing in Burma’s Rakhine province is best characterized by one word: anarchy. Since the country’s gradual opening began in 2011 Burma has witnessed periods of ethnic clashes often described as ethnic cleansing, the flames of which also engulfed the province of Rakhine. As is the case with many other communalist conflicts the world over, civilians bear the main brunt of destruction unleashed by the government security forces in response to attacks of local armed groups. Close to 100,000 Rohingyas became Internally Displaced Persons, known as internal refugees and mostly dwell in temporary camps.  Many of them end up perishing from disease since the Burmese government creates many hurdles for humanitarian organizations willing to extend them so much needed help.

The position of the Rohingya refugees is perilous as many of them don’t possess any proof of their identity and documents issued to them by the Burmese authorities in the past blatantly name them  Bangladeshi citizens, which gives them no chance of return after voluntarily leaving or being forcibly expelled from the country. While the act of forcing them out in the eyes of the government amounts to nothing different from merely expelling “foreigners”. This makes for a serious violation of international agreements, for instance the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness[2]. The only problem is that Burma hasn’t become a side to these agreements and is therefore not formally bound to respect them. As a result, Rohingyas are effectively not only homeless, but also stateless.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Office in cooperation with the UN member states issue so called Identity Cards[3] for the refugees, which are often the only proof of their identity. The main disadvantage in this document lies in the fact that it is not widely respected by all the countries and even in the ones that honor it, it doesn’t award their holders with any necessary to survive rights, such as the right to being legally employed.

In the camp of the Rohingyas

The refugee camp which I managed to see was located in a small village called Ferozepur Namak located some 150 kilometers from India’s Delhi. It is one of 2 camps located near the country’s capital. Remaining Rohingya camps in India are mostly located in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Quite naturally, my first visit filled me with the utmost excitement. Not surprisingly, newcomers were treated by the camp’s inhabitants as a novelty. After traditional greetings, equally traditional questions followed “where are you from”? I am from Poland I replied—it didn’t ring a bell with any of the people gathered there. Notwithstanding that, after the few hours spent in the camp many young people desperately wanted to know how much it would cost to get a fake passport allowing them to enter this country, which was totally unknown to them. This portrays well the level of desperation of people who would even try their luck in a place totally foreign to them in a frantic search to improve their present meager existence.

For many refugees the Identity Cards issued by the UNHCR are the only proofs of their identities.

Everyday life in a refugee camp

The camp which I had a chance to visit was organized by the refugees on their own on a plot of land belonging to a local farmer. As one of the camps inhabitants related they have been informed by the government that they can reside in the country, however they shouldn’t expect any additional assistance from any of the governmental agencies.

Most of the days look alike here. Camp inhabitants don’t really have much to do, however the very fact that they made it safely out of the furnace of civil strife in Burma is a lot in itself. Naturally social roles in the camp were clearly defined and based on the age and sex:

• Children spend most of their time in a local madrasa (Muslim school) organized in one of the barracks. They are not allowed to attend public Indian schools as they have no documents proving their identity and cannot afford to send their children to a private school. Many of them are yet too young to understand all the injustices which their families suffered, but their youthful eyes are still gleaming with innocence and childish hope.
• Men—some of them do menial tasks working on the neighboring farms, of course illegally and for the money that can’t satisfy even the most basic needs.
• Women are responsible for taking care of homes (it would be rather fitting to say shacks in this context) and often rearing numerous offspring.

Some among the camps inhabitants receive financial support from their families living and working in Bangladesh, while the rest have no steady source of income and own close to nothing except for a few things taken hastily from their homes the very last moment before fleeing the country. The overall level of education in the camp is very low and out of some few hundred people residing there, only very few are fully literate. As a result, many of the children have all the prospects of remaining illiterate for the remainder of their lives. People living here are also cut off from medical services and in case of emergency they need each time to find a doctor or rather, a quack, that is if they are lucky enough. Their life is more hopeless than that of Orwellian character. The world has easily come to terms with their plight, aren’t there already millions of poor and destitute people in the world after all?

People living here have often witnessed scenes of bestiality beyond description

Many children witnessed their parent’s death, while in some of the other families all of their female members were raped. One of the most important parts of the movie I took part in, was a trial of the children on the camps inhabitants. Using their childish common sense, not yet tainted by the vices of the grown-ups they were about to decide the future of camps inhabitants after carefully listening to their life stories. As in a real courtroom, children acted as judges, public prosecutors and lawyers. How much have these people suffered is amply illustrated by a 10-year-old boy. He and his mother were asked to testify in front of the “court”. The boy claimed that his father remains trapped in Burma, but remains in touch with his estranged family, however when it was his mother’s turn to give her “court” testimony he began to shout at her “go home woman, I forbid you to reveal our story”. As it happens boy’s father was long dead and he in accordance with Freudian defense mechanism wanted to convince himself that it was otherwise. 

A shop located in the heart of the camp testifies to capitalism taking firm roots even among the poor and destitute…

Some of the people possess only Myanmar issued documents declaring them citizens of Bangladesh   (sic!)

Makeshift mosque; religion is often one of the very few remnants of peoples’ former life.

All the buildings have temporary character and privacy is not in evidence.

In theory Rohingyas remain under the umbrella of various NGOs, however their help alone can’t solve many of the systematic issues, such as lack of education or employment.

Looking at the issue, it’s difficult to put the blame for refugees squalid living conditions solely on the shoulders of the Indian government when keeping in mind that the country has its indigenous population of hundreds of millions of destitute people, but the life of Rohingyas shows how different from lofty sounding international agreements their conditions are.

Another international problem without a clear solution in sight?

Unfortunately, life itself has written the last chapter of this coverage. Because of indiscriminate violence most of Rohingya people now remain displaced out of Burma. Most of those who managed to save their life now dwell in neighboring Bangladesh, which is itself one of the world’s poorest countries and conditions of people populating the refugee camps can in the lightest of terms be described as appalling. The Burmese government staunchly denies claims of the violence committed against the Rohingya minority, claiming that Rohingyas (whose number in Burma is now close to 625,000 in 2017[4]) left the country as a result of inter-communal clashes and terrorism. Aung San Su Kyi who in 2013 seemed to be the apostle of changes in the country has largely avoided raising the issue of Rohingyas and both the governmental and international commissions working on the Rohingya issue didn’t come to any substantial conclusions.

With tense refugee situation in other parts of the world, Rohingya’s prospects of getting asylum in other countries are even grimmer than before. Luckily, among this unspeakable outpouring of human suffering and grief there exist groups like Khalsa Aid International, which strive to ease the burden of pain and wash off the stains of the blood by helping displaced. However, as the international community appeals to Myanmar to readmit the Rohingyas, one question remains unanswered, how will their future be safeguarded from shameful atrocities?

More on the issue:

http://www.dw.com/en/myanmars-rohingya-a-history-of-forced-exoduses/a-40427304

http://www.dw.com/en/myanmars-rohingya-a-history-of-forced-exoduses/a-40427304

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/sep/06/who-are-the-rohingya-and-what-is-happening-in-myanmar

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/09/06/how-burmas-rohingya-crisis-went-from-bad-to-worse/

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[1] http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/StatusOfRefugees.aspx

[2] http://www.unhcr.org/un-conventions-on-statelessness.html

[3] http://www.unhcr.org/excom/scip/3ae68cce4/identity-documents-refugees.html

[4] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-rohingya-widows/rohingya-widows-find-safe-haven-in-bangladesh-camp-idUSKBN1E136I

WHY THE WORLD IS BECOMING A BETTER PLACE TO LIVE IN

  With terrorist attacks a daily occurrence, other atrocities no less in evidence and the phantom of the war looming over many parts of the word it may not seem likely that the overall living conditions in the world at large have become anything but better. However, millions of people who have finally become literate or were lifted from poverty in the last two decades will doubtlessly reap the benefits of social progress, which may transform their lives. Certainly, the UN is not solely responsible for these substantial improvements, but as the world’s only genuinely international forum with every country represented there, it deserves significant share of praise for these spectacular achievements. Let’s examine some of the humanity’s biggest successes in the past 28 years.

LITERACY:

The literacy rate among youth aged 15 to 24 has increased globally from 83 per cent to 91 per cent between 1990 and 2015. Number of children out of school has been reduced; 1995-120 million; 2015 56 million.

 

What is the most important the biggest changes occurred in the regions most affected by the low literacy, i.e. Sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East and South Asia. Despite these changes the world still needs more efforts to achieve the universal literacy, which is defined by the UN as condition when  96 percent of members of a respective population are literate.

POVERTY:

Global number of extreme poor has been significantly reduced from some 1.9 bln in 1990 to less than half that number in 2015 (830 mln).

Source: http://povertydata.worldbank.org/poverty/home/

Two countries accounting for the preponderant share of that stunning uplifting of millions are China and India. In 1990 China had 756 million people living below the poverty line, while India had 338 million. Twenty-five years later China had only 25 million people living below the poverty line, while India 218 million.

Source: http://povertydata.worldbank.org/poverty/home/

Some  other major gains in combating extreme destitution were mostly achieved in other Asian developing countries like Indonesia (change from 100 mln in 1990-25 mln in 2015 ) , Vietnam (39 mln in 1990-3 mln in 2015), Pakistan (62 mln in 1990-12 mln in 2015) or Bangladesh (45 mln in 1990-18 mln in 2015).

Unfortunately, simultaneously the extreme poverty has progressed in some Sub-Saharan African countries: in Nigeria the number of people subsisting below the level of poverty line has skyrocketed from 51 million to 86 million, while in DRC it increased from 24 to 55 million people. This can partly be attributed to the demographic explosion currently taking place in many parts of Africa. For instance, in the time span of the last 26 years Nigeria’s population has increased by 57 million, while that of DR Congo by 46 million. As a rule impoverished people are more likely to have more children as they often constitute the only safeguard for their parents future.

GLOBAL FIGHT WITH HIV/AIDS:

Global fight with HIV/AIDS is one of the fields where results are most tangible. In 1990, close to 3.5 mln people living in developing countries contracted the deadly disease, while in 2015 this number has been significantly reduced to close to 2 mln new infections annually. Unfortunately in the similar period the number of new HIV infections in developed countries has slightly risen from some 170.000 new cases in 1990 to 190.000 new infections in 2015. What is equally important the antiretroviral therapy outreach has been dramatically increased from mere 800.000 in 2003 to almost 14 million people enjoying the treatment by June of 2014.

MALARIA PREVENTION:

The areas highlighted in red still report malaria cases, the ones highlighted in blue have eradicated malaria; Source: http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2015/10/daily-chart-7?fsrc=scn/fb/te/bl/ed/theshrinkingmalariamap

Similarly to global fight with many other widespread diseases, global fight with malaria is ripe with significant (although often unreported) achievements. Since 2000, the incidence of malaria has been cut in almost half to 90 million new cases per year in 2015. It is partly a result of increased consciousness of the disease and handing over of millions of anti-mosquito nets in Africa that allow members of local populations to enjoy healthy sleep, while contributing to the decreased occurrence of the disease. It is projected by the scientists that malaria can be totally wiped out by 2040. On the other hand, we are witnessing rise of various drug resistant types of malaria, which must be combated in a more efficient manner.

ACCESS TO CLEAN DRINKING WATER :

What deserves attention is the fact of close to 1.9 bln people gaining access to piped drinking water during the recent years and the overall figure of humans enjoying access to clean, piped drinking water presently stands at 4.2 bln. Moreover, 91 percent of people are now using water of better quality.

Alarmingly, if no new actions are to be undertaken, by 2040 the world’s water scarcity may be further enlarged by some 40 percent and the brunt of that will be especially borne by the most vulnerable communities of Western Asia, Northern Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia.

EQUAL  ACCESS TO EDUCATION FOR WOMEN:

Although equal access to education for girls is still a distant dream in many parts of the world (mostly least developed countries), however the situation has improved dramatically over the past years and now 64 percent of developing countries have achieved parity of boys and girls at the level of primary schools. The prospects of reaching equality at the level of secondary education are still relatively dim (only 3 percent of the countries managed to achieve it).  

One of the biggest success stories in improving equal access to education took place in South Asia where in 1990 primary school enrolment ratio for women was close to 74 (for 100 boys), in 2015 reaching ratio of 103 girls for 100 boys.

What is interesting, in 2015 women in many regions have not only achieved equal access to education, but in some parts of the globe number of female students has by far exceeded that of males; for instance Eastern Asia, Latin America, Northern Africa, South-Eastern Asia all have more female than male students at a university level. It has tipped the scales in imbalance yet again with boys now being severely underrepresented at the university level (close to 120 women for 100 men), especially in Northern Africa and Latin America.

SOME OF LARGELY UNRESOLVED WORLD-WIDE ISSUES INCLUDE:

• International Terrorism, the rise of international terrorism is mostly visible in Western Europe, but in fact countries mostly affected by it lie in Africa and South Asia
• Refugees related problems, including both external refugees and internally displaced persons (Palestine, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, South Sudan, DRC, CAR, Somalia,Ukraine), due to numerous ongoing conflicts the number of refugees has decidedly risen in the past 5 years to the levels not witnessed since the times of WW2. Contrary to common belief the bulk of the refugees reside in Northern Africa.
• Climate Change- a question which threatens the very existence of human race  
• Gender equality-women earn on average 25 percent less than their male counterparts doing the same work and their promotion prospects are often limited
• Lack of sustainable development model in many countries- this includes lack of access to electricity in many parts of Africa, reliance on fossil fuels in the production of electricity,  or lack of commitment to combat the negative effects of climate change from many developing and developed countries alike

CONCLUSION

Appreciating numerous successes witnessed by the last quarter of a century doesn’t necessarily indicate that the world as we know it today has been miraculously transformed into the Garden of Eden. Seemingly never ending conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Palestine, South Sudan, people dying on an almost daily basis in terrorist attacks, refugees desperately trying to save their lives and to search for opportunities of a dignified life elsewhere, this is also the present reality. But in the boundless ocean of human misery and sorrow the UN is still one of the brightest beacons of hope and light in these tumultuous times we happen to live in.

SOURCES/FURTHER READING; unless stated otherwise all the numerical data in this articles is based on the below sources:

The Millennium Development Goals Report 2015

http://datatopics.worldbank.org/sdgatlas/SDG-01-no-poverty.html

http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/

Other sources:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-27921938