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BSS-23
RUSHANARA-ROHINGYA
Int’l community must redouble efforts to meet needs of Rohingyas:Rushanara
DHAKA, July 30, 2018 (BSS) – British MP Rushanara Ali has said the
international community must redouble their efforts to meet the immediate
needs of the Rohingyas.
“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.
The British MP made the remarks following her visit to different Rohingya
camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district on July 26 and 27, said a press
statement here today.
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.
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.
BSS/AIM/RY/1710 hrs