Further restrictions imposed on Rohingya camps in Bangladesh

05-04-2021

Gianpaolo Mascaro

Bangladesh and Human Rights Researcher, 

Global Human Rights Defence

Some non-governmental organizations reported how the Bangladeshi authorities have recently intensified their efforts to compress Rohingya refugees’ rights to education, employment and freedom of movement. In particular, Human Rights Watch warned against government’s decisions to destroy thousands of refugee-led shops and to impose new hindrances to movement across the different camps situated in Cox’s Bazar. Additionally, it is worth recalling that, approximately one week ago, officials shut down a school reserved to refugee youngsters. (See the previous news regarding this topic here: Bangladesh Shuts Private School for Rohingya Refugees)

It goes without saying that all these measures constitute a huge threat to Rohingya’s livelihoods, justifying the strong concerns of the international community towards the policies of the government. Meenakshi Ganguly, Human Rights Watch’s South Asia director, recognized that refugees’ flows have actually exposed Bangladesh to long-lasting difficulties, such as economic pressure and the overpopulation of some areas. Nevertheless, he added that depriving them of the enjoyment of fundamental human rights cannot be an adequate response, as it further stresses their vulnerability and their dependence on aid. Moreover, it is important to remember that these actions carried out by the government and by the enforcement agencies of Bangladesh amount to grave breaches of international refugees’ laws, which state the obligation to treat this category of people according to the principles of humanity and non-discrimination. 

The living conditions of Rohingya people hosted on the Bangladeshi territory still represent one of the recent years’ worst humanitarian crises, with hundreds of thousands of refugees finding themselves below the threshold of poverty and being constantly denied the access to most of the goods and the infrastructure fundamental to survival.

Sources and Further Information:

Human Rights Watch. (2022). Bangladesh: New Restrictions on Rohingya Camps. Retrieved from: https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/04/04/bangladesh-new-restrictions-rohingya-camps