'Unseen' News and Views – By Baher Kamal & The Like
The critical needs of 1.2 million mostly Rohingya refugees in south-eastern Bangladesh were top of the agenda for a fact-finding mission to the region by three senior United Nations officials, who called for continuing support on Friday [26 April 2019] for them from the international community.
Bangkok (Human Rights Watch)* — The Bangladeshi government has expelled scores of Rohingya refugee children from schools in southeast Bangladesh since late January 2019, Human Rights Watch said on 1 April 2019. Officials have ordered secondary schools near the refugee settlements in the Cox’s Bazar district to dismiss Rohingya students, who lack Bangladeshi citizenship.
EXPAND — Rohingya refugee students demonstrate against being expelled from Bangladeshi secondary schools in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, February 6, 2019. © 2019 Private | Photo from Human Rights Watch.
The Bangladesh government should cease the expulsions of Rohingya refugee students from schools and ensure that all children are able to receive a formal education.
A humanitarian crisis fuelled by the suppression of basic human rights is continuing across Myanmar’s Rakhine state, a UN Human Rights Council-appointed expert said on Monday [11 March 2019] in an appeal for alleged atrocities there to be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
.
Rohingya refugees Tansima and Amira pictured at Kutupalong refugee settlement, Bangladesh, where they are elected bloc representatives © UNHCR/Roger Arnold
“We need more street lights,” says Tansima, 28, who is an elected deputy bloc leader at the world’s largest refugee settlement, which is home to 620,000 people, more than half of them women or girls.
“It will make it easier to access latrines and shops will be able to stay open after dark,” she adds.
27 February 2019 – With around half a million in effect, stateless Rohingya refugee children living in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar camp, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) chief stressed that the international community must address their “untenable situation” and “invest in this generation”.
Major fighting in Myanmar’s troubled Rakhine state has so far been avoided following clashes between armed separatists and national security forces who are increasing troop numbers there, a top UN humanitarian official there said on Wednesday [9 January 2019].
In an interview with UN News, Knut Ostby, Acting Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Myanmar, reiterated calls for all sides “to find a peaceful solution to the situation”, amid concern “that there could be a quite immediate escalation of fighting”.
13 November 2018 — There is “terror and panic” among Rohingya refugees in southern Bangladesh, who are at imminent risk of being returned to Myanmar against their will, the United Nations top human rights official has said, warning that the returns would seriously endanger the lives of those sent back.
Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh (IOM)* – Young girls sold into forced labour are the largest group of trafficking victims identified by the UN Migration Agency (IOM) in Bangladesh’s Rohingya refugee camps.
Rohingya refugees watch a street performance aimed at raising awareness of the risks of trafficking in the Cox’s Bazar refugee camps. Photo: IOM 2018.
IOM counter-trafficking experts warn that more than a year into a crisis that has seen the number of Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar soar to almost a million, more desperate families are sending their young daughters off into dangerous work situations because most households have no other way to earn money in the camps.
More than a year into the crisis in Cox’s Bazar, the number of Rohingya refugees has reached nearly one million, with young girls in Bangladesh refugee camps sold into forced labour accounting for the largest group of trafficking victims, reported the UN Migration Agency (IOM) on 16 October 2018.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 