The fate of the Rohingya people still hangs in balance as hundreds of thousands of refugees on Thursday marked the fifth anniversary of their exodus from Myanmar to Bangladesh.
The one-hour journey from Dhaka to Cox’s Bazar by air crossing over the Bay of Bengal and the many rivers in the delta nation of Bangladesh is worth enjoying and remembering. The rest of the way from the airport to the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar is also wonderful, with the beauty of the sea on the one side and the hills covered with green trees on the other.
This is the standard short narration given by most foreigners and international aid workers who frequent the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh’s southeastern district of Cox’s Bazar bordering Myanmar.
But after such a picturesque journey, once they reach the camps, they are dismayed by the subhuman living conditions there, a congested environment with packed tents made of bamboo and tarpaulin sheets, and limited sanitation facilities.
A large hilly site that was once the home of forest elephants is now home to more than 1.2 million persecuted Rohingya, most of whom fled a brutal military crackdown in August 2017 in Rakhine state in their home country of Myanmar.
Though Bangladesh initially barred the genocide survivors from entering its territory, later it allowed the exodus on humanitarian grounds.
Since then the oppressed people have been living in cramped makeshift settlements that have been divided into 34 camps in what is considered the world’s largest refugee camp.
After crossing several security checkpoints, this Anadolu Agency (AA) correspondent reached the stateless people at camp No. 12 to learn about their life and struggles in Bangladesh, a South Asian overcrowded nation of 165 million.
Mohammad Enamullah, 50, a father of four children, told Anadolu Agency that they are grateful to the Bangladeshi government and its people for their hospitality and humanity at a time when their own government was mercilessly murdering them.
"We are here safer than Myanmar. But we have not come here forever as stateless people. We have no future here, no future for our new generation,” Enamullah said on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the Rohingya exodus in Bangladesh to be observed on Aug. 25, 2022.
Two of his four children were born in the camp in Bangladesh. "I am really worried about the future of my children.”
Enamullah's makeshift tent is located on a hillslope and is at constant risk of being damaged by mudslides in rough weather.
"It’s not the life of a human being. What is our fault? Why are we out of our country where we had been living for many generations?” Enamullah’s wife, Morium Begum, said with audible emotion while holding her youngest child. Their other children were playing on the muddy ground.
She added that they had croplands, cattle, a good house and other properties in Myanmar when the members of the "killer” Tatmadaw (the official name of the Myanmar army) launched a brutal clearance operation under the guise of anti-insurgent operations.
The United Nations and many others have branded it as a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing” while the United States and dozens of human rights organizations have called it a "genocide.” A genocide case filed by the African state of Gambia is also on trial at the U.N.’s top court, the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
"But we are tired of our stateless life with no significant progress of repatriation to our home country of Myanmar with dignity, safety, and the long-cherished citizenship rights,” Rohingya community leader, Master Abdur Rahim, told AA.
Once a school teacher in his home country, Rahim added that the international community should not be "so slow” in resolving the Rohingya crisis for the greater interest of the whole region.
Bangladesh and Myanmar signed an memorandum of understanding (MoU) in November 2017 over the peaceful repatriation of the Rohingya people. However, not a single member of the ousted community has been repatriated in the last five years.
Two formal attempts to start the repatriation have failed since 2017 as, without citizenship rights and safety guarantees under the U.N., the traumatized Rohingya are not ready to return.
Even after her first-ever visit to Bangladesh last week, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet did not sound hopeful about the possibility of peaceful repatriation in the near future.
In a press conference in the capital Dhaka on Aug. 17, following her daylong visit to the Rohingya camps, she openly pointed out that the environment was not right for the repatriation.
"Unfortunately, the current situation across the border means that the conditions are not right for returns. Repatriation must always be conducted in a voluntary and dignified manner, only when safe and sustainable conditions exist in Myanmar,” Bachelet said.
She, however, added: "The international community must sustain its support to Bangladesh in its response, and press Myanmar to create conditions for return, address the root causes, and pursue accountability.”
Now, the question of thousands of Rohingya to world leaders – how long will their fate continue to hang in the balance before the conscience of a civilized world that frequently claims to promote human rights and justice?
