International community must redouble their efforts to meet the immediate needs of the Rohingyas.
British MP Rushanara Ali made the comment following her visit to different Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar recently, said a press statement in Dhaka on Monday.
“The world must not forget their plight, as this crisis continues…Only one third of the UN appeal for funding has been fulfilled,” she said.
Over one million people have been living in an area less than 5 square miles after being persecuted by the Myanmar army since August 25 last year.
Rushanara, a British Labour Party MP from Bethnal Green and Bow, however, emphasized on political solutions which allow the Rohingya to rebuild their lives in safety and security in their homeland in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, reports BSS.
She also visited a women’s centre and mobile medical team run by the International Rescue Committee, a community centre run by UNHCR and BRAC, and met Rohingya and Bangladeshi representatives there.
Referring to the monsoon rains that increases plight of the inmates of the refugee camps, the British parliamentarian observed that conditions are increasingly dangerous and landslides have already destroyed shelters and people have been injured.
Local and international agencies such as International Rescue Committee are doing incredible work under very difficult circumstances, he added.
“August marks the one-year anniversary of the brutal violence carried out by the Burmese military against the Rohingya, but it also marks the peak of the monsoon in Cox’s Bazar,” she said.
She added, “Rains will continue to worsen and the cyclone season will soon follow”.
Rushanara said the Rohingya people have faced unimaginable horror following the violence in their homeland by the Burmese army.
“I heard horrific stories of systematic discrimination over many years. And in the August 2017 attacks – stories of sons being separated from their fathers and killed by soldiers,” she said.
In this connection, Rushanara said mothers spoke of daughters being taken way, raped and killed, and of being separated from their families when fleeing from their attackers, as their homes were being burnt to the ground.
About Bangladesh-UK relations, the British MP said the ties between the UK and Bangladesh remain strong, and the UK government is uniquely positioned to lead support for the Rohingyas.
She appreciated the generosity of the people of Bangladesh, especially the communities in Cox’s Bazar, is remarkable and the long-term needs of local people who also live in poverty, under very challenging circumstances, should be at the heart of future plans as well.
Beginning on 25th August 2017, the Burmese military carried out a series of attacks against the Rohingya population in Rakhine state which led to hundreds of thousands of people fleeing for their lives and crossing the border into Bangladesh.