Rallying for Rohingya
More than half of the 370,000 Rohingya who have made it to Bangladesh are minors
Indians protest against the treatment of Rohingya near the Myanmar embassy in New Delhi yesterday. A crackdown by Myanmar has sent 379,000 Rohingya refugees scrambling across the border to Bangladesh. India’s Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju said the refugees were a security concern for India. UN chief Antonio Guterres yesterday called on Myanmar to halt its military campaign against Rohingya in Rakhine state, acknowledging that the Muslim minority was facing ethnic cleansing.
Many children have seen family members brutally killed in village massacres in Rakhine state. Others narrowly escaped with their own lives — some children arriving in Bangladesh bear shrapnel and bullet wounds.
The lost Rohingya boy made the journey from Myanmar alone, following strangers from other villages across rivers and jungle until they reached Bangladesh, where he had no family and no idea where to go.
“Some women in the group asked, ‘Where are your parents?’ I said I didn’t know where they were,” said Abdul Aziz, a 10-year-old whose name has been changed to protect his identity.
“A woman said, ‘We’ll look after you like our own child, come along’. After that I went with them.”
More than 1,100 Rohingya children fleeing violence in western Myanmar have arrived alone in Bangladesh since August 25, according to the latest Unicef figures.
These solo children are at risk of sexual abuse, human trafficking and psychological trauma, the UN children’s agency said.
Many have seen family members brutally killed in village massacres in Rakhine state. Others narrowly escaped with their own lives — some arriving in Bangladesh bear shrapnel and bullet wounds.
More than half of the 370,000 Rohingya Muslims who have made it to Bangladesh since August 25 are minors, according to UN estimates. This presents a needle in a haystack scenario for child protection officers trying to find unaccompanied minors in sprawling refugee camps.
“This is a big concern. These children need extra support and help being reunited with family members,” Save the Children’s humanitarian expert George Graham said in a statement.