Myanmar refugees refuse to go home 15 years on
COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh (Reuters) - Imam Sharif and his family have lived in a squalid refugee camp in Bangladesh since they fled Myanmar 16 years ago.
"Life here in the camp is no better. Hunger and disease stalk us day in and day out. Our children are growing up like dogs on the street," Sharif said last week.
The 21,000 Rohingya refugees living in two camps run by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Bangladeshi government are lucky compared to more recent arrivals from Myanmar who are homeless and live outdoors.
The refugee camps are in Bangladesh's southeastern Cox's Bazar district, separated from Myanmar by the Naf river which forms part of the border between the two countries.
Some 250,000 poor and uneducated refugees crossed into Bangladesh in early 1992 alleging rape, killing, forced labor and other torture by troops in Arakan state in west Myanmar, where a large number of residents are Muslims.
Most of the refugees were sent back under the supervision of UNHCR. But the repatriation process has been stalled since July 2005 when the remaining 21,000 refused to go back, fearing renewed persecution and arrest for leaving the country.
"They will kill us or put us into jail for life, if we go back," said Sharif at the Kutupalong camp, 450 km from Dhaka.
Their refusal prompted the Bangladeshi government to stop sheltering new refugees, but they continued to flow in.
The new arrivals live in makeshift shelters in the jungles, and mingle with local Muslims, who share a similar language, religion and appearance.
The newcomers eke out a meager living as laborers, and have no access to clean water or proper sanitation. Local villagers complain the refugees pose serious health and social problems, such as prostitution.
Bangladesh authorities are now planning to set up a third camp on the bank of the Naf river to house about 9,000 Myanmar refugees, officials at Cox's Bazar said.
But the UNHCR said it can't oversee the camp.
"We are just moving them to safer place ... But as long as they do not have refugee status, we can't help them more," said Pia Prytz Phiri, the representative of the UNHCR in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh's government must officially recognize these people as refugees before the UNHCR can look after them, she said. Bangladesh is not a signatory to the 1951 United Nations convention on refugee rights, but it does informally recognize those living in the camps as refugees.
"We gave permission to shift them on humanitarian ground as the place they are now living is vulnerable," said Ahmed Hossain Khan, Bangladesh's refugee relief and repatriation commissioner.
"It was very essential because the place is wet. The houses get flooded when the tide come," said Claudia Stephan, the project coordinator of aide group MSF. "Most of the houses are made of polythene sheets and sacks. It is not sufficient to protect against rain so cold-related diseases are very common."
"I have visited many refugee camps across the world, most recently in Darfur, Sudan. But the situation here (Damdamia) is worst than that," said Jaap Broersma, the MSF Head of Mission.
