Dispatch #4 - The Future of the Rohingya Refugees
A few people have asked where they can make a donation to help the refugees.
The organization I am volunteering with is called MedGlobal. They are doing great work in the camp by providing top-notch medical care in an underserved area of the camp. They are also supporting the work of their local NGO partner, Prantic Unnayan, and the health initiatives of OBAT Helpers. They also run missions to Greece, Lebanon, Sierra Leone, and Venezuela.
If you want to donate to broader refugee relief efforts that address issues beyond healthcare, check out the International Rescue Committee (disclosure - my sister works for the IRC, great organization) or the UNHCR.
===============================================
In this post, I want to share a few musings on what the future may hold for the Rohingya refugees. A disclaimer: First, I am NOT an expert on this topic. I have spent all of nine days in Bangladesh working in the world's largest refugee camp but there are thousands of people more qualified to speak on this topic than me. Second, this is not meant to be an exhaustive dissertation on the topic. Third, part of my publishing this post is hoping that readers and friends can point me towards additional information to further inform my opinions. With that out of the way, let's get started...
First, a quick bit of history. The Rohingya people can trace their heritage to the Rakhine state of Myanmar going back hundreds of years. In the 1970s, during the East-West Pakistan War between modern-day Pakistan and Bangladesh, some Bengali of Rohingya ancestry were displaced to Myanmar. Then in the late 70s, the Burmese Junta began to persecute the Rohingya and some fled to Bangladesh. A pivotal moment came with the passage of the 1982 Citizenship Law in Burma that disenfranchised the Rohingya, stripped them of their citizenship, and effectively left this ethnic group stateless. In 1992 the first wave of Rohingya refugees fled violence in Myanmar and were settled in the original block of the Kutupalong refugee camp (yes, the same camp that now houses 900k+ refugees has been around since 1992 - and this link is an amazing interactive map of the camp). Additional waves of refugees came in 2012, 2015, and 2017-2018. This last wave generated the largest amount of media, though the overall lack of global attention is often cited as a key reason for why the conflict grew as large as it did and why very few solutions are in sight. For more on the history, check out this great wikipedia page.
Talking with one of my translators, I asked him what it would take for him to go back to Myanmar. He said that first, the government must restore citizenship for the Rohingyas. Living without citizenship always relegated the Rohingya to a second class life (or lower). They weren't allowed to go to school past a certain age (approximately 4th grade). If you wanted to continue your education, your family could pay a non-Rohingya family with a kid your age so that you could assume your peer's identity and continue your education as someone else. It was possible to get all the way through University like this. Most jobs were off-limits (being a teacher to other Rohingya or a shop keeper was allowed). You could be jailed (or worse) at the drop of a hat. One woman told her doctor about her reunion with her husband in the camp who she hadn't seen for 8 years because he had been in jail in Myanmar for that whole time after being charged with "owning a cell phone." There were exceptions to all of these rules. But in contrast to Syria where the refugee population consisted of many educated professionals, the Rohingya refugee population is poorly educated and has very few professional or skilled workers. Therefore even if Bangladesh could absorb all of the refugees, the immediate upside in terms of cheap/abundant professional labor is limited since there are so few skilled or educated workers.
Why else doesn't Bangladesh want 900,000 Rohingya refugees? While Bangladesh has progressed by leaps and bounds over the past 20+ years (reportedly literacy >70%, access to improved water sources >98%), it still ranks 143rd in the world in GDP per capita and is objectively a low-and-middle income country (stats from Wikipedia page). Not only is it relatively poor but it is also densely populated with a population of ~165 million people in a country the size of Iowa. Taking the hyper-local view, look at the Cox Bazar district that is hosting the Rohingya influx. From early 2017 to the end of 2018, the district's population increased from 400,000 to 3.2 million! While nearly a million of these were refugees, the remainder are the military, police, aid workers, construction workers, businessmen, and service workers drawn to the influx of capital and resources.
(My next post will address the refugee industrial complex and my very mixed feelings about it)
Before we get to the discussion about potential solutions, the last minor detail in this conversation must be the legal status of the Rohingya. Their plight qualifies them as refugees in the colloquial sense. But when it comes to international law, the UN, and the host country's responsibilities, the Rohingya are not officially considered "refugees" but rather stateless persons forcibly displaced from their home country due to violence. Semantics? Sure but with huge implications because it means that Bangladesh does not have to offer them a path to citizenship, does not have to provide education or job training, and has very limited responsibilities when it comes to health, nutrition, and sanitation. The burden falls on the UNHCR, the NGOs on the ground, and by association, the donors and the world media who support the work of these NGOs.
So what are the potential solutions? 1) Send the Rohingya back to Myanmar. 2) Settle the Rohingya in Bangladesh. 3) Put the Rohingya on an island. 4) Transition the refugee camps from temporary to permanent. 5) Figure out a plan with neighboring countries to distribute the refugees
1) Send them back - This would be Bangladesh's first choice. The government even tried it. They quickly figured out that the Rohingya set to be repatriated didn't want to go and after much pressure, called it off. My translators have both said that they would only be willing to go back if they were given full citizenship, guaranteed safety and access to education and healthcare, and if the government apologized for its treatment of the Rohingya. It is a common saying in the camp that most would prefer to die in Bangladesh than be sent back to Myanmar because "at least in Bangladesh, I know that I will get a proper funeral." In Myanmar, the Rohingya weren't allowed to congregate in public, even for a funeral.
2) Settle them in Bangladesh - This may be the most sensical long-term plan. The hurdles are many - see the paragraph above discussing Bangladesh's plight pre-refugee crisis. There is currently no path to citizenship, no formal education or job training, and no long-term vision or plan as to how the Rohingya may one day become Bengalis.
3) Put them on an island - Bangladesh has a lot of water. Changing tides create (and erase) islands all the time. Why not reclaim one of these sandy islands, build a bunch of concrete cells, and then plan to relocate the Rohingya there? This may work in a SimCity-style simulation of urban planning but the harsh reality is unappealing and inhumane. And yet, according to The Guardian, this is exactly what the government is currently planning. The island is 3 hours by boat from the mainland, is being designed with inadequate latrines, and effectively looks and would function like a minimum security prison. It would be traumatizing enough to be forced to live there but doubly traumatizing for a population that was scarred by violence and displacement, whole communities were erased, destroyed, killed, or dispersed, and the entire social order upended by a trek over the mountains and across rivers to end up in a pop-up tent city limbo-world.
4) Make the camp permanent - If Bangladesh does nothing, this is where they'll end up. History may repeat itself since the current Kutupalong-Bukhali camp is actually built around the original Kutupalong refugee camp that has housed Rohingya refugees since 1992. It wasn't meant to be a permanent settlement then but there are already some second-generation Rohingya refugees in the camps and inertia is a powerful force. If this is where the future leads, Bangladesh would be best served to develop a path to citizenship and offer services to the refugees rather than leaving such a large population hemmed in with nothing to do and no means to better their situation.
5) Spread 'em out - If Bangladesh can't absorb all of the refugees, can other neighboring countries help? I'm sure there's talk of this, but I haven't heard it yet. Here, China is the elephant in the room. Sandwiching Myanmar from the other side, China is the shadow puppeteer who could pressure the Myanmar Junta to stop the ethnic cleansing or even allow the Rohingya to return, could offer Bangladesh enough aid to make Rohingya absorption palatable, or throw enough cash around to ease the burden for the surrounding countries. This would also invariably lead to the further splintering of communities and continue splitting up what social institutions have been able to survive for the Rohingya so far. I know it's endlessly more complicated than this. And the history (and future) of the region means that not everyone is willing to kowtow to Beijing's demands. But having lived in China for a few months and spent time near the China-Myanmar border, there is an active trade and dialogue going on between these two countries and it's crystal clear who wields the power baton.
There's no way to wrap this one up with a nice bow. I don't know which situation would be best. Each one is full of potholes and potential abysses, the plusses are hard to see, and amidst it all, the human suffering continues.
===============================================
So that it's not all doom and gloom, my sports teams had a great week!
1 - Atlanta United brought home the MLS Cup!!!!!!!!!!
2 - Duke's Freshmen Phenoms keep on rolling
3 - Giants are trying to salvage some dignity and whooping a conference team helps
The organization I am volunteering with is called MedGlobal. They are doing great work in the camp by providing top-notch medical care in an underserved area of the camp. They are also supporting the work of their local NGO partner, Prantic Unnayan, and the health initiatives of OBAT Helpers. They also run missions to Greece, Lebanon, Sierra Leone, and Venezuela.
If you want to donate to broader refugee relief efforts that address issues beyond healthcare, check out the International Rescue Committee (disclosure - my sister works for the IRC, great organization) or the UNHCR.
===============================================
In this post, I want to share a few musings on what the future may hold for the Rohingya refugees. A disclaimer: First, I am NOT an expert on this topic. I have spent all of nine days in Bangladesh working in the world's largest refugee camp but there are thousands of people more qualified to speak on this topic than me. Second, this is not meant to be an exhaustive dissertation on the topic. Third, part of my publishing this post is hoping that readers and friends can point me towards additional information to further inform my opinions. With that out of the way, let's get started...
First, a quick bit of history. The Rohingya people can trace their heritage to the Rakhine state of Myanmar going back hundreds of years. In the 1970s, during the East-West Pakistan War between modern-day Pakistan and Bangladesh, some Bengali of Rohingya ancestry were displaced to Myanmar. Then in the late 70s, the Burmese Junta began to persecute the Rohingya and some fled to Bangladesh. A pivotal moment came with the passage of the 1982 Citizenship Law in Burma that disenfranchised the Rohingya, stripped them of their citizenship, and effectively left this ethnic group stateless. In 1992 the first wave of Rohingya refugees fled violence in Myanmar and were settled in the original block of the Kutupalong refugee camp (yes, the same camp that now houses 900k+ refugees has been around since 1992 - and this link is an amazing interactive map of the camp). Additional waves of refugees came in 2012, 2015, and 2017-2018. This last wave generated the largest amount of media, though the overall lack of global attention is often cited as a key reason for why the conflict grew as large as it did and why very few solutions are in sight. For more on the history, check out this great wikipedia page.
Talking with one of my translators, I asked him what it would take for him to go back to Myanmar. He said that first, the government must restore citizenship for the Rohingyas. Living without citizenship always relegated the Rohingya to a second class life (or lower). They weren't allowed to go to school past a certain age (approximately 4th grade). If you wanted to continue your education, your family could pay a non-Rohingya family with a kid your age so that you could assume your peer's identity and continue your education as someone else. It was possible to get all the way through University like this. Most jobs were off-limits (being a teacher to other Rohingya or a shop keeper was allowed). You could be jailed (or worse) at the drop of a hat. One woman told her doctor about her reunion with her husband in the camp who she hadn't seen for 8 years because he had been in jail in Myanmar for that whole time after being charged with "owning a cell phone." There were exceptions to all of these rules. But in contrast to Syria where the refugee population consisted of many educated professionals, the Rohingya refugee population is poorly educated and has very few professional or skilled workers. Therefore even if Bangladesh could absorb all of the refugees, the immediate upside in terms of cheap/abundant professional labor is limited since there are so few skilled or educated workers.
Why else doesn't Bangladesh want 900,000 Rohingya refugees? While Bangladesh has progressed by leaps and bounds over the past 20+ years (reportedly literacy >70%, access to improved water sources >98%), it still ranks 143rd in the world in GDP per capita and is objectively a low-and-middle income country (stats from Wikipedia page). Not only is it relatively poor but it is also densely populated with a population of ~165 million people in a country the size of Iowa. Taking the hyper-local view, look at the Cox Bazar district that is hosting the Rohingya influx. From early 2017 to the end of 2018, the district's population increased from 400,000 to 3.2 million! While nearly a million of these were refugees, the remainder are the military, police, aid workers, construction workers, businessmen, and service workers drawn to the influx of capital and resources.
(My next post will address the refugee industrial complex and my very mixed feelings about it)
Before we get to the discussion about potential solutions, the last minor detail in this conversation must be the legal status of the Rohingya. Their plight qualifies them as refugees in the colloquial sense. But when it comes to international law, the UN, and the host country's responsibilities, the Rohingya are not officially considered "refugees" but rather stateless persons forcibly displaced from their home country due to violence. Semantics? Sure but with huge implications because it means that Bangladesh does not have to offer them a path to citizenship, does not have to provide education or job training, and has very limited responsibilities when it comes to health, nutrition, and sanitation. The burden falls on the UNHCR, the NGOs on the ground, and by association, the donors and the world media who support the work of these NGOs.
So what are the potential solutions? 1) Send the Rohingya back to Myanmar. 2) Settle the Rohingya in Bangladesh. 3) Put the Rohingya on an island. 4) Transition the refugee camps from temporary to permanent. 5) Figure out a plan with neighboring countries to distribute the refugees
1) Send them back - This would be Bangladesh's first choice. The government even tried it. They quickly figured out that the Rohingya set to be repatriated didn't want to go and after much pressure, called it off. My translators have both said that they would only be willing to go back if they were given full citizenship, guaranteed safety and access to education and healthcare, and if the government apologized for its treatment of the Rohingya. It is a common saying in the camp that most would prefer to die in Bangladesh than be sent back to Myanmar because "at least in Bangladesh, I know that I will get a proper funeral." In Myanmar, the Rohingya weren't allowed to congregate in public, even for a funeral.
2) Settle them in Bangladesh - This may be the most sensical long-term plan. The hurdles are many - see the paragraph above discussing Bangladesh's plight pre-refugee crisis. There is currently no path to citizenship, no formal education or job training, and no long-term vision or plan as to how the Rohingya may one day become Bengalis.
3) Put them on an island - Bangladesh has a lot of water. Changing tides create (and erase) islands all the time. Why not reclaim one of these sandy islands, build a bunch of concrete cells, and then plan to relocate the Rohingya there? This may work in a SimCity-style simulation of urban planning but the harsh reality is unappealing and inhumane. And yet, according to The Guardian, this is exactly what the government is currently planning. The island is 3 hours by boat from the mainland, is being designed with inadequate latrines, and effectively looks and would function like a minimum security prison. It would be traumatizing enough to be forced to live there but doubly traumatizing for a population that was scarred by violence and displacement, whole communities were erased, destroyed, killed, or dispersed, and the entire social order upended by a trek over the mountains and across rivers to end up in a pop-up tent city limbo-world.
4) Make the camp permanent - If Bangladesh does nothing, this is where they'll end up. History may repeat itself since the current Kutupalong-Bukhali camp is actually built around the original Kutupalong refugee camp that has housed Rohingya refugees since 1992. It wasn't meant to be a permanent settlement then but there are already some second-generation Rohingya refugees in the camps and inertia is a powerful force. If this is where the future leads, Bangladesh would be best served to develop a path to citizenship and offer services to the refugees rather than leaving such a large population hemmed in with nothing to do and no means to better their situation.
5) Spread 'em out - If Bangladesh can't absorb all of the refugees, can other neighboring countries help? I'm sure there's talk of this, but I haven't heard it yet. Here, China is the elephant in the room. Sandwiching Myanmar from the other side, China is the shadow puppeteer who could pressure the Myanmar Junta to stop the ethnic cleansing or even allow the Rohingya to return, could offer Bangladesh enough aid to make Rohingya absorption palatable, or throw enough cash around to ease the burden for the surrounding countries. This would also invariably lead to the further splintering of communities and continue splitting up what social institutions have been able to survive for the Rohingya so far. I know it's endlessly more complicated than this. And the history (and future) of the region means that not everyone is willing to kowtow to Beijing's demands. But having lived in China for a few months and spent time near the China-Myanmar border, there is an active trade and dialogue going on between these two countries and it's crystal clear who wields the power baton.
There's no way to wrap this one up with a nice bow. I don't know which situation would be best. Each one is full of potholes and potential abysses, the plusses are hard to see, and amidst it all, the human suffering continues.
===============================================
So that it's not all doom and gloom, my sports teams had a great week!
1 - Atlanta United brought home the MLS Cup!!!!!!!!!!
2 - Duke's Freshmen Phenoms keep on rolling
3 - Giants are trying to salvage some dignity and whooping a conference team helps
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