Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on the government of Bangladesh to protect the influx of Rohingya Muslim refugees trying to escape violence in Burma.
“The Bangladeshi government is trying to make conditions for Rohingya refugees already living in Bangladesh so awful that people fleeing brutal abuses in neighboring Burma will stay home,” said HRW’s Bill Frelick in a statement.
Bangladesh is imposing penalties on international organizations who are providing humanitarian aid to fleeing Rohingya Muslims.
HRW said that in late July, Bangladesh told Doctors Without Borders, Muslim Aid, and Action Against Hunger to stop providing assistance to Rohingya.
Over the past several months, sectarian violence erupted between the Rohingya and ethnic Rakhine in Burma’s Rakhine State. The Burmese government deployed security forces to the region and have also been accused of arbitrary violence.
“Rohingya are escaping killings, looting, and other sectarian violence in Arakan State, as well as abuses by the Burmese authorities, including ethnically motivated attacks and mass arrests,” the New York-based rights group said.
The border regions in Bangladesh are home to around 200,000 Rohingya, while border guards have been accused of turning back hundreds or even thousands of refugees from Burma.
Refugees who make it to Bangladesh, however, have to live in horrible conditions in camps described by the organization as “squalid and overcrowded.”
“Seasoned aid workers have told Human Rights Watch that the conditions in the makeshift camps for Rohingya are among the worst they have seen anywhere in the world,” the rights group said.
HRW said that Bangladesh is a member of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, meaning that it has an obligation to allow asylum-seekers and refugees access to food, health care, shelter, among other protections.
“Bangladesh’s refugee camps are no tourist resorts and the government should recognize that the Rohingya arriving are fleeing Burma for their lives,” Frelick said.
“Rather than meeting its international obligations by assisting Rohingya who have fled deadly sectarian violence, the Bangladesh government is compounding their suffering. It should change its policy and provide temporary protection and allow aid or it will create an even greater humanitarian disaster.”
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