ROHINGYA MUSLIM REFUGEE CAMPS - Ethnic Cleansing Refugee Support

ON THE GROUND ALONG MYANMAR BORDER 

For decades, there has been on and off ethnic and religious (Buddhist v Muslim) tensions along the border of Myanmar and Bangladesh. There have been numerous outbreaks of major conflict and violence including beatings, rapings-as an act of war, burning of villages, and massive murder all pointing to ethnic cleansing by the Myanmar government military.  Accordingly, there have been multiple massive forced exiles of the Rohingya Peoples out of Myanmar by boat into Malaysia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Thailand and beyond to wherever the unscrupulous smugglers would choose to take them.  International media has collectively dubbed them the “boat people”.  Often, these smugglers would abandon these helpless and vulnerable Rohingya Peoples at sea, leaving them to die adrift. Thousands to-date have already died. To learn more about this compelling story, see attached link to Sky News Article:

The Inti Raymi Fund had a strong desire to respond to this international humanitarian crisis, so our team of two headed out to see how we could help. Our team comprised of Chimu and Krishna Chakma traveled to the Myanmar-Bangladesh border.  Upon arrival, we were blown away at the sheer magnitude of the refugee camp sizes and pathetic conditions the refugees lived in. There are an estimated 800,000 refugees who have relocated into Bangladesh alone, making this camp the largest refugee camp in the world. To make matters worse, this region of Bangladesh is barely above sea level and experiences massive Cyclones/Hurricanes each season.  Additionally, most of the topography along this peninsula of southern Bangladesh is sloping hills of clay or sandy soil with a high propensity of landslide, flooding and potential for massive deaths as soon as the first Cyclone season arrives.  In addition, the do-it-yourself refugees have been digging and carving up of every inch of the sandy hillsides using poor terracing techniques which are prone to slide away upon the first rain.  Almost every bit of forestation including the roots, have been dug up for cooking fuel, furthering the erosion situation.  Worst of all, the refugees within the dozen or so zones we viewed were living on dirt floor huts made of a mud parameter with tiny vertical bamboo strips for framing with black plastic lined walls which are far from waterproof revealing gaping holes everywhere.  Most of these pathetic “lean tos” are so disrespectfully short in height that most people cannot even stand up-right in these shacks. Upon spending time in these camps, it was revealed to us that ISIL is heavily recruiting terrorist volunteers in these camps due to the refugee’s recent terrible persecution by Myanmar authorities and their horrific current living conditions. Our personal observation is that prison would be a better option than these abysmal camps. We even observed anti-terrorism banners in the camps discouraging youth radicalization. Sex traffic businesses started up, snatching your girls and teens who mistakenly agreed to “a promise of a good job opportunity”, only to be enslaved by unscrupulous sex traffickers.  The situation in these camps is a time bomb waiting to explode! 

Given the phenomenal magnitude of this crisis and size of each sprawling camp with tens of thousands of people running around “like ants” in tight quarters, we felt our safest option as a charity was to find a small community where we could sit down and visit with the people without causing mass chaos or “introducing poverty through  jealousy”, since we could not possibly share with all 800,000 refugees equally.

After several days of touring most of the southern peninsula of the Myanmar/Bangladesh border, we came upon a community with 10 distinct huts containing 12 families. This community was situated remotely from the other main government controlled militarized camps.  As we usually do with our foundation, we approached them with the utmost Respect and Dignity then asked “What do you need?” and “How can we help you?”  The people obviously needed too many things to count, but of utmost importance was their Dignity and Respect as human beings so we made sure we provided them their self-determination allowing them control of their lives by giving them choices.  The conversation quickly revealed that what would be best for them is cash.  Given the fact that they literally had zero money, and that as Myanmar refugees they are not allowed to work in Bangladesh to earn money, how could they possibly survive long term?  Many of the refugees we discovered, sell their UNHCR (United Nations High Commission on Refugees) materials & supplies to buy the things they really need.  Our community is forced to sell their WFP (World Food Program) food rations each month to pay their monthly $6 land rent where their shacks were built upon!  In the end, the mutually agreed upon conclusion among the 12 families was to equally distribute the $25,000 among the 12 families.

Words cannot describe the amazement and appreciation these wonderful Rohingya Peoples felt and expressed after receiving roughly two-three years of wages all up front. This “second chance in life” will allow them to buy the necessary food, clothing and housing improvements which they will need for survival.  We hope many of them will choose to escape this painfully dismal militarized camp to start a new life in other regions of Bangladesh or elsewhere away from the storm surges and eminent cyclones.

Although our Foundation’s contribution is only “a drop in the bucket” for this global humanitarian crisis, we know that our gift made a difference to those 40 people who’s lives will forever be changed. We wish them well and we will be thinking of them often.