Seven years of Rohingya exodus: Fears of lost generation, fading hope for return

Special Rohingya children refugees wait, squashed against each other, to receive food handouts distributed to children and women at a refugee camp in Bangladesh. (File/AP)
Rohingya children refugees wait, squashed against each other, to receive food handouts distributed to children and women at a refugee camp in Bangladesh. (File/AP)
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Updated 25 August 2024
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Seven years of Rohingya exodus: Fears of lost generation, fading hope for return

Rohingya children refugees wait, squashed against each other, to receive food handouts distributed to children and women.
  • Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh have no working opportunities, diminishing hope for repatriation
  • There is a ‘big lack’ of collective international effort to solve Rohingya crisis, expert says

DHAKA: Seven years after a brutal military crackdown in Myanmar forced Hasina Begum and her family to flee across the border to Bangladesh, life has been nothing but a struggle.

The mother of four was one of more than 730,000 Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh in August 2017 to escape atrocities and persecution that according to the UN have amounted to genocide. Sunday, known as “Rohingya Genocide Day,” marked the anniversary of their mass exodus.

“There is no way out of the agony. Here, we have been living a life that is full of struggle, uncertainty, insecurity, and with no hope for the future,” Begum told Arab News.

Though the Rohingya have faced decades of systematic discrimination and persecution in the majority-Buddhist country, life in Bangladesh’s refugee camps was “not a dignified one,” she said.

The Rohingya, which the UN described as “one of the world’s most persecuted minorities,” were not recognized as an indigenous ethnic group in Myanmar, which denies them the right to claim citizenship.

Begum is now among the 1 million refugees living in the overcrowded camps in Cox’s Bazar, which has turned into the world’s largest refugee settlement and where humanitarian aid has dwindled.

“My children are suffering from malnutrition as I can’t provide them with sufficient food. The exorbitant price of daily essentials has put us in an extremely hard situation, and it’s getting tougher day by day,” she said.

International aid for the Rohingya has been dropping since 2020, with the World Food Program reducing food assistance for the refugees since last year after its pleas for donations were not met, deepening food insecurity in the camps.

Yet food was just one of Begum’s many worries, as Rohingya refugees struggle with no working opportunities, a lack of education and proper healthcare, and diminishing hope for a dignified repatriation.
Though the return of the Rohingya to Myanmar has been on the agenda for years, a UN-backed repatriation process has yet to take off despite pressure from Bangladesh and international organizations.

“We have witnessed many discussions in the UN and other regional platforms, but our fates remain the same,” Begum said.

“The superpowers should have done something effective to ensure our repatriation with dignity and rights. But it seems that the major players in the global platforms are driven by their own interests and agendas. Sometimes, it seems to me that we are just like dolls or tools at the whims of superpowers.”

Countries like the US often spoke about the protection of human rights, but Begum said such talks did not translate into real action for the Rohingya.

“In our case, we didn’t see much effort to protect our rights. It’s a shameful situation and seems like a double standard.”

In recent years, many Rohingya have made extremely dangerous voyages across the Indian Ocean to seek better lives, hoping to reach countries like Malaysia or Indonesia. However, the UN estimates that as many as one in eight people die or disappear in the attempt.

The international community “must do more” for his people, said Rohingya rights activist Mohammed Rezuwan Khan.

“The lack of international pressure and failure to take concrete action against the Myanmar junta and Arakan Army only adds to our sufferings and seems to be giving the perpetrators chances to continue their atrocities,” Khan, who along with his family survived the 2017 genocide, told Arab News.

Hundreds of Rohingya have reportedly been killed trying to flee ongoing fighting between Myanmar’s military government and the Arakan Army, an armed ethnic rebel group in Rakhine State, the center location of the 2017 violence.

“Repatriation seems distant, and I fear that even if it happens, the conditions in Myanmar will still not be safe or dignified for the Rohingya, as the Arakan Army and the military junta intensify their targets against the Rohingya,” Khan said.

On Friday, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk was among those who raised concerns over the deteriorating situation in Rakhine, which Amnesty International said was “disturbingly familiar” to the violence against the Rohingya seven years ago.

Yet since 2017, the world’s most powerful countries, like the US, China and Japan, have not put maximum pressure on Myanmar authorities, said Prof. Imtiaz Ahmed, international relations expert and a former lecturer at Dhaka University.

“Since all these countries are members of the UN, (the UN) could have initiated a strong united effort. But that’s not happening here,” Ahmed said.

“A collective effort from the international community is much needed. Just talking won’t do it anymore.”

The recent fighting in Rakhine has brought a new layer to the crisis, but also an opportunity for the international community to “take a chance” at this moment, Ahmed said.

“We have to keep in mind that every crisis creates some opportunities also. If we sit idle to let the crisis over, then there will not be any solution. There is no doubt that there is a big lack of collective effort at the international level.”

In Bangladesh, where hosting Rohingya refugees is costing the government about $1.2 billion per year, international support to ensure a dignified repatriation to Myanmar and a dignified life in waiting was deemed crucial.

“International community should engage more with Myanmar for repatriating the Rohingya, and until then, they should continue to provide support to Bangladesh,” said Mizanur Rahman, Bangladesh’s refugee relief and repatriation commissioner in Cox’s Bazar.

The Rohingya are “severely affected” by “the slow process of resolving the crisis,” which leaves them in “deep, frustrating situations,” he told Arab News.

“If they can’t return to their homeland … many Rohingya are now thinking that the future of their next generation is now at real stake.”


Trump rules out new Harris debate as swing state fight resumes

Trump rules out new Harris debate as swing state fight resumes
Updated 13 sec ago
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Trump rules out new Harris debate as swing state fight resumes

Trump rules out new Harris debate as swing state fight resumes

CHARLOTTE: Donald Trump said Thursday he would not take part in another debate with Kamala Harris, as the White House rivals headed back to battleground states that are set to decide a nail-bitingly close US presidential election.

The Republican former president lashed out two days after his first televised clash with the Democratic vice president, when Harris put Trump on the defensive and got under his skin with a series of barbs.

“THERE WILL BE NO THIRD DEBATE!” the 78-year-old wrote on his Truth Social platform, including in his tally the earlier debate with Joe Biden in June that drove the incumbent out of the race, and his Tuesday showdown with Harris.

Trump claimed that “polls clearly show that I won the Debate against Comrade Kamala Harris” — despite several snap surveys that showed Harris came out well on top in the clash viewed by more than 67 million Americans.

In a rally in the key swing state of North Carolina, Harris insisted that they should debate again before the November 5 election. It wasn’t clear if she was aware of Trump’s statement.

“Two nights ago Donald Trump and I had our first debate and I believe we owe it to the voters to have another,” Harris said to cheers from supporters in the city of Charlotte.

“Because this election and what is at stake could not be more important,” added the Democrat, who heads to a second rally in Greensboro, North Carolina later on Thursday.

The 59-year-old went on to reference several Trump statements on issues including abortion and his widely mocked assertion that he had “concepts of a plan” to reform the US health care system.

The Harris campaign said earlier that she was entering a “more aggressive” phase of her White House bid and was “seeking to capitalize on her decisive debate victory and build on momentum.”

Trump was taking the stage later Thursday in Tucson, Arizona, amid media reports of turmoil in his camp over the way Harris succeeded in goading him into angry responses.

He will focus on “our struggling economy and the rising cost of housing,” his campaign said — indicating an attempt to get Trump to stick to mainstream voter concerns, rather than his penchant for wild conspiracy theories and lobbing of insults.

Trump and Harris remain neck and neck in the polls with just 54 days until the election, with the result expected to hinge on a few thousand voters in half a dozen swing states including North Carolina and Arizona.

Harris has erased Trump’s lead since Biden ended his reelection bid on July 21 but insists she is the underdog in perhaps the shortest and most dramatic campaign in US political history.

The election is also further stoking political tensions in an already deeply polarized nation.

The White House on Thursday condemned a false story about migrants eating pet cats and dogs in Ohio — which Trump pushed during the debate — as “filth” and said it put “lives in danger.”

The US government has meanwhile declared the formal electoral count on January 6, 2025 a “special security event” — amid apparent fears of a repeat of the storming of the US Capitol in 2021 by Trump supporters who refused to accept his defeat by Biden.

The announcement came as Republican Alberto Gonzales, who was attorney general under president George W. Bush, said he backed Harris because of Trump’s behavior on that day made him a threat to the rule of law.

Trump and Harris though have their eyes firmly fixed on the battlegrounds.

Harris returns to pivotal Pennsylvania on Friday for campaign events in Johnstown and Wilkes-Barre before attending an awards dinner Saturday with Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff.

Trump will deliver remarks in Las Vegas on Friday on the cost of living, as he targets Nevada, yet another key swing state.

Harris’s running mate Tim Walz will travel to Michigan and Wisconsin from Thursday to Saturday as part of the campaign’s New Way Forward swing state tour.


Colombia seeks information on ‘mercenaries’ held in Russia

Colombia seeks information on ‘mercenaries’ held in Russia
Updated 5 min 9 sec ago
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Colombia seeks information on ‘mercenaries’ held in Russia

Colombia seeks information on ‘mercenaries’ held in Russia

BOGOTA: Colombia’s government said Thursday it had asked Russia for information about the welfare of three of its nationals held by Moscow on suspicion of acting as mercenaries in Ukraine.

Two of the soldiers who had allegedly been fighting on the side of Ukraine reportedly disappeared in July while on their way home through Venezuela, a close ally of Moscow.

In late August, a court in Moscow said the two men — Alexander Ante and Jose Aron Medina — had been remanded in custody on charges of acting as mercenaries, a crime punishable by 15 years in prison in Russia.

The foreign ministry in Bogota said Thursday it had written to Moscow “seeking information on the legal status, current whereabouts and health status of the Colombian citizens.”

It said a third Colombian named Miguel Angel Cardenas was also being held.

The disappearance of Aron and Ante first became public in late July, when Aron’s family told Colombia’s El Tiempo newspaper the two had disappeared just before they were due to board a plane at Caracas airport for Bogota on July 19.

The next time they saw the pair was in a video released by Russia’s FSB security services on July 30, which showed them in Ukrainian uniforms, and then being interrogated in prison.

It was not clear how they had arrived in Russia, which is one of the few countries to have recognized Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro’s claim to have won a second presidential term in disputed July elections.

Venezuela’s opposition claims their candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia was the rightful winner, a claim backed by several Latin American countries, the United States and the European Union.

A friend of Ante’s family told El Tiempo the men were in Ukrainian uniform when they went missing in Venezuela, which borders Colombia.

Colombia, where the security forces have been combatting guerrillas, paramilitaries and drug cartels for over six decades, has one of Latin America’s largest armies.

Some retired soldiers have gone on to fight as mercenaries in foreign battlefields, including in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Since 2022, an unknown number has also enlisted with the Ukrainian army, trying to fight off a Russian invasion.

The relatives of several ex-Colombian soldiers have reported their loved ones killed, wounded or going missing in Ukraine recently.

Last month, leftist President Gustavo Petro’s administration tabled a bill in parliament to ban the training, financing and recruitment of mercenaries in the country.


US calls for Africa to get two permanent UN Security Council seats

US calls for Africa to get two permanent UN Security Council seats
Updated 25 min 57 sec ago
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US calls for Africa to get two permanent UN Security Council seats

US calls for Africa to get two permanent UN Security Council seats

UNITED NATIONS:  Washington called Thursday for two new permanent seats on the UN Security Council for African nations, alongside a rotating seat for island states — but insisted they not have a veto.

The proposals would transform the 15-member top body of the global organization which has been largely unchanged for decades and is mired in dysfunction and disagreements between existing permanent members.

The new African representatives should not wield veto power over council resolutions, unlike the current permanent members — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — US officials have said.

“I’m announcing the United States supports three additional changes to the Security Council,” said Washington’s ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, at the Council on Foreign Relations think-tank.

This would include “creating two permanent seats for Africa,” she said.

African nations already have three non-permanent seats on the Security Council, allocated on a rotating basis for two year terms.

In addition, “the United States supports creating a new elected seat on the Security Council for small island developing states,” Thomas-Greenfield said.

Reform of the Security Council, long-stalled because of differences among its permanent members, would need to be ratified unanimously among the five top-tier powers — all nuclear armed.

A change in membership would first require adoption and ratification by two-thirds of the 193 member states.

Washington has notably said it is opposed to allowing any new members the veto power enjoyed by the five permanent members, claiming it would cause gridlock.

“We’ve been very, very clear that we do not support expansion of the veto,” Thomas-Greenfield said.

“We have veto power as well, and none of the permanent members want to give up their veto power — including us. I’m being honest about that.”

Sierra Leone President Julius Maada Bio told the Security Council in August that “Africa wants the veto abolished.”

“However, if UN Member States wish to retain the veto, it must be extended to all new Permanent Members as a matter of justice,” he said.

The United Nations said Washington’s call was a positive step for African representation.

“The announcement is an important one, it’s welcome,” said a spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

“All of the details of how this will work will have to be decided by member states,” Stephane Dujarric told a briefing.

“It goes along the lines of what (Guterres) has said, lamenting the lack of African representation.”

In September 2022, US President Joe Biden threw his weight behind reform of the council, supporting calls for permanent seats for Africa and Latin America, without giving details.

Russia has previously called for African nations to be cautious of new seats on the council if granted alongside seats to longstanding US allies like Japan and Germany, which Washington has sought.

“It will not be possible to address historical injustice toward Africa while simultaneously allowing new Western members to join the UN Security Council,” Russian deputy ambassador to the UN Dmitry Polyansky said previously.


Bomb threat rattles US city in Republican anti-migrant conspiracy

Bomb threat rattles US city in Republican anti-migrant conspiracy
Updated 31 min 19 sec ago
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Bomb threat rattles US city in Republican anti-migrant conspiracy

Bomb threat rattles US city in Republican anti-migrant conspiracy

SPRINGFIELD, United States: Government buildings and an elementary school in Springfield, Ohio were evacuated Thursday after an emailed bomb threat, police said, rattling the small US city at the heart of an anti-migrant conspiracy theory amplified by Donald Trump.

Springfield has been thrust into the spotlight in recent days after an unfounded story of Haitian migrants eating pets went viral on social media, with the Republican ex-president and current White House candidate pushing the narrative despite it being debunked.

Democrats have accused Trump and his running mate, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, of fanning racial tensions as they use the Springfield conspiracy theory to elevate immigration as a campaign issue ahead of November’s election.

The White House condemned the conspiracy theory on Thursday as “filth” and said they were endangering people’s lives.

“It is spreading filth that makes the lives of the communities that are being smeared here... it puts their lives in danger,” Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.

Despite local officials saying they had received no credible reports of pets being stolen and eaten, Trump repeated the claim during his debate Tuesday against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.

Springfield police said in a statement that City Hall and several other government buildings had been evacuated after a bomb threat sent by email at 8:24 am (1224 GMT).

“Authorities investigated and cleared all facilities listed in the threat with the assistance of explosive detecting canines,” it said.

Fulton Elementary School and Springfield Academy of Excellence were also listed in the threat and evacuated, according to the statement.

“We are currently partnering with the Dayton office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to identify the source of the email,” it added.

Arriving at the school to retrieve his child, Haitian immigrant Mackenso Roseme told AFP that the current tensions in the community were “worrying.”

“I’m a little stressed. I think something might happen,” he said.

A sign in English, Spanish and Haitian Creole informed Roseme and other parents that the students had been moved to a high school.

Mayor Rob Rue told the Springfield News-Sun that the person who sent the bomb threat claimed to be from the city and mentioned Haitian immigration issues.

Despite the bomb threats, Trump was still reposting memes related to the conspiracy theory hours later on his Truth Social platform.

He claimed Ohio was being “inundated with Illegal Migrants, mostly from Haiti, who are taking over Towns and Villages at a level and rate never seen before.”

Springfield, with a population of about 58,000, has seen an increase in Haitian immigrants in recent years — 10,000 to 15,000 according to the Springfield News-Sun.

Social services, schools and housing have been stressed in the city for years, with some pointing to migration as a factor.

A multiracial group of pastors called a press conference Thursday in Springfield, joining hands in prayer and calling on the community to come together.

“Today there were some things that happened, some threats of violence,” Wes Babian, a former pastor of First Baptist Church, told AFP.

“That is part of what motivated the quick calling of clergy to come together to express our support for the Haitian community and our concern for the well being of the entire community.”


Salman Rushdie’s memoir about his stabbing, ‘Knife,’ is a National Book Award nominee

Salman Rushdie’s memoir about his stabbing, ‘Knife,’ is a National Book Award nominee
Updated 12 September 2024
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Salman Rushdie’s memoir about his stabbing, ‘Knife,’ is a National Book Award nominee

Salman Rushdie’s memoir about his stabbing, ‘Knife,’ is a National Book Award nominee
  • The National Book Foundation, which presents the awards, released long lists of 10 Thursday for nonfiction and poetry
  • The foundation announced the lists for young people’s literature and books in translations earlier in the week and will reveal the fiction nominees on Friday

NEW YORK: Salman Rushdie’s “Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder,” his explicit and surprisingly resilient memoir about his brutal stabbing in 2022, is a nominee for the National Book Awards. Canada’s Anne Carson, one of the world’s most revered poets, was cited for her latest collection, “Wrong Norma.”
The National Book Foundation, which presents the awards, released long lists of 10 Thursday for nonfiction and poetry. The foundation announced the lists for young people’s literature and books in translations earlier in the week and will reveal the fiction nominees on Friday. Judges will narrow the lists to five in each category on Oct. 1, and winners will be announced during a Manhattan dinner ceremony on Nov. 20.
Rushdie, 77, has been a literary star since the 1981 publication of “Midnight’s Children” and unwittingly famous since the 1988 release of “The Satanic Verses” and the death decree issued by Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini for the novel’s alleged blasphemy. But “Knife” brings him his first National Book Award nomination; he was a British citizen, based in London, for “Midnight’s Children” and other works and would have been ineligible for the NBAs. Rushdie has been a US citizen since 2016.
Besides “Knife,” the nonfiction list includes explorations of faith, identity, oppression, global resources and outer space, among them Hanif Abdurraqib’s “There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension,” Rebecca Boyle’s “Our Moon: How Earth’s Celestial Companion Transformed the Planet, Guided Evolution, and Made Us Who We Are” and Jason De León’s “Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling.”
The other nonfiction nominees were: Eliza Griswold’s “Circle of Hope: A Reckoning with Love, Power, and Justice in an American Church,” Kate Manne’s “Unshrinking: How to Face Fatphobia,” Ernest Scheyder’s “The War Below: Lithium, Copper, and the Global Battle to Power Our Lives,” Richard Slotkin’s “A Great Disorder: National Myth and the Battle for America,” Deborah Jackson Taffa’s “Whiskey Tender” and Vanessa Angélica Villarreal’s “Magical/Realism: Essays on Music, Memory, Fantasy, and Borders.”
Along with Carson’s “Wrong Norma,” poetry nominees include Pulitzer Prize winner Dianne Seuss’ latest, “Modern Poetry“; Fady Joudah’s elliptically titled “(...)”; Dorianne Laux’s “Life on Earth”; Gregory Pardlo’s “Spectral Evidence”; and Rowan Ricardo Phillips’ “Silver.”
Others on the poetry list were Octavio Quintanilla’s “The Book of Wounded Sparrows,” m.s. RedCherries’ “mother,” Lena Khalaf Tuffaha’s “Something About Living” and Elizabeth Willis’ “Liontaming in America.”