• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Friday, June 2, 2023
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home Featured

UN Fears Aid to Myanmar’s Rohingya Risks ‘Entrenching Segregation’

Staff Writer by Staff Writer
06/18/19
in Featured, Refugees, World
Rohingya refugees

Around 6,000 Rohingya have been living on a thin stretch of land between the two countries since fleeing Myanmar. Photo: Munir Uz Zaman, AFP

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

The U.N. has warned it will pare back aid to thousands of Rohingya Muslims left destitute as Myanmar’s government closes camps in Rakhine state, over fears its continued support “risks entrenching segregation.”

Aid agencies are facing an increasingly sharp dilemma in the region as they balance relief for desperate communities with leverage over the government.

The majority of Myanmar’s Rohingya were driven into Bangladesh by a brutal army crackdown in 2017, but around 400,000 remain inside conflict-battered Rakhine.

Those include nearly 130,000 held since 2012 in squalid camps, currently supported by U.N. agencies and humanitarian groups.

As part of its strategy to address the crisis, Myanmar has closed several camps holding around 9,000 Rohingya.

But they have not been allowed to return to their former homes and remain dependent on handouts. Instead, they are being settled in new accommodation close to the former camps.

That has sparked fears aid agencies are effectively being used to prop-up a policy that fails to address the fundamental needs of the Rohingya, including housing, work, food, and security.

The camp closure plan “risks entrenching segregation,” U.N. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Myanmar Knut Ostby wrote to the government in a leaked letter, dated June 6 and seen by AFP.

The letter, also written on behalf of aid groups, warned support “beyond life-saving assistance” at the closed sites would in future be linked to “tangible” progress made on “the fundamental issue of freedom of movement.”

“Life-saving” support includes food, health, and water, but site planning, shelter construction, and education facilities could be phased out, aid agency sources told AFP.


‘Concentration Camps’ 

The U.N. has faced criticism for a slow response to violence against the Rohingya, which escalated after 2012 clashes between Muslim Rohingyas and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists.

A U.N. report released Monday admitted “systemic failures” in its handling of the build-up to the Rohingya crisis.

Limited access to Rakhine’s camps makes independent reporting on conditions difficult.

But AFP has reviewed recent interviews conducted in five camps by an NGO requesting anonymity to protect its work.

“If I build a house, it can be seized arbitrarily,” one Rohingya man said. “I have no right to the land and I can also be arrested at any time.”

An aid worker called the remaining 23 sites in Rakhine little more than “concentration camps.”

On condition of anonymity, she spoke of the “complicity” humanitarian staff feel for perpetuating the segregation.

Amnesty International has described Rakhine as an “apartheid state.”

All aid must be “heavily conditioned,” researcher Laura Haigh said, warning donors that building infrastructure could make them complicit in crimes against humanity.

The government defended the camp closures, telling AFP it would continue working with the U.N. and NGOs on the issue.

Any former camp resident holding a National Verification Card (NVC) will be able to “move freely within their township” and access “education, health facilities, and livelihood activities,” the social welfare ministry said.

Most Rohingya refuse to apply for the card believing they should already be treated as full citizens.Those interviewed said the few to have caved had no more rights than anyone else.

They were also forced to designate themselves as “Bengali,” a term implying they are from Bangladesh.

“They are just trying to dominate us and make us illegal through different ways,” one Rohingya man said.


More on the Subject 

Bangladesh PM Slams Myanmar Over Rohingya Deadlock

ShareTweet
Staff Writer

Staff Writer

AFP with The Globe Post

Related Posts

Children and families flee their neighbourhoods amid fighting in Khartoum, Sudan
World

‘Frighteningly Large Number of Children’ Killed in Sudan: UN

by Staff Writer
May 5, 2023
Myanmar Rohingya refugees look on in a refugee camp in Teknaf, in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar, on November 26, 2016
Refugees

US Announces $26M in New Aid for Rohingya

by Staff Writer
March 8, 2023
People cool off with a fountain's water during a heat wave in Seville, Spain
Environment

UN Confirms 2022 Among Eight Hottest Years on Record

by Staff Writer
January 13, 2023
Sudan clashes
World

Death Toll in Sudan’s Ethnic Clashes Rises to 13: UN

by Staff Writer
October 17, 2022
Myanmar school attack
World

Myanmar School Attack Could Be ‘War Crime’: UN Probe

by Staff Writer
September 27, 2022
Taliban fighters
Featured

UN Expert Decries ‘Systematic’ Attacks on Afghan Shiites

by Staff Writer
September 12, 2022
Next Post
Refugee child holding up a sign reading 'we are human like you'

World Refugee Day and the Cruel Repercussions of Trump's Actions

A demonstrator dressed as Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (C) with blood on his hands protests outside the Saudi embassy in Washington, DC after Khashoggi went missing.

'Credible Evidence' Linking Saudi Crown Prince to Khashoggi Murder: UN Expert

Recommended

Migrants waiting at the Turkish border.

Beyond Numbers: Confronting Europe’s Broken Border System

May 30, 2023
A noose is seen on makeshift gallows as supporters of US President Donald Trump gather on the West side of the US Capitol in Washington DC on January 6, 2021

Militia Leader Gets 18 Years in Prison Over US Capitol Attack

May 26, 2023
Customers queue to enter a re-opened Zara clothes shop

EU Targets Fast Fashion in Push for Durable Goods

May 23, 2023
A billboard showing the debt limit is seen in Washington, D.C.

US Republicans Upbeat on Prospects for Debt Deal

May 19, 2023
Military hardware rolls through Dvortsovaya Square during a Victory Day military parade in central Saint Petersburg

Pressing Russia, US Shares Nuclear Warhead Data Under Treaty

May 16, 2023
A man holding a gun

The NRA’s Continuing Agenda of Fear

May 12, 2023

Opinion

Migrants waiting at the Turkish border.

Beyond Numbers: Confronting Europe’s Broken Border System

May 30, 2023
A man holding a gun

The NRA’s Continuing Agenda of Fear

May 12, 2023
US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas

A Supreme Folly 

April 24, 2023
Transgender Army veteran Tanya Walker speaks to protesters in Times Square near a military recruitment centre

Tennessee Is A Drag on the First Amendment

March 26, 2023
Chinese President Xi Jinping

China’s Path to Economic Dominance

March 15, 2023
An earthquake survivor reacts as rescuers look for victims and other survivors in Hatay, a Turkish province where hundreds of buildings were destroyed by the earthquake

Heed the Call of Our Broken World

March 1, 2023
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post