Rohingyas in Rakhine: 1.3 lakh of them living in inhuman conditions

About 130,000 Rohingyas in the camps of Myanmar's Rakhine state are living under squalid and abusive conditions, which are like "open prisons", said Human Rights Watch (HRW) yesterday.

"The Myanmar government has interned 130,000 Rohingyas in inhuman conditions for eight years, cut off from their homes, land, and livelihoods, with little hope that things will improve," said Shayna Bauchner in a new HRW report published yesterday.

An estimated one million Rohingyas lived in Myanmar, but a brutal military crackdown in 2017 forced some 750,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh.

Of the more than 250,000 Rohingyas left in Myanmar, around 100,000 have been living in refugee camps having been displaced during an earlier wave of violence in 2012.

Thousands of other Rohingyas live in villages spread across Rakhine, but are fearful of the military, which keeps a constant watch on their communities. Conflict between the military and the Arakan Army, an ethnic Rakhine armed group, has complicated their problems.

The 169-page HRW report, based on interviews of more than 60 interviews with Rohingyas as well as Kaman Muslims and humanitarian workers, said the Rohingyas have been living in the camps and camp-like communities and experiencing "severe limitations" on their livelihoods and their movement.

Rakhine State is subject to an internet blackout and remains off-limits to foreign journalists unless they travel in a prearranged trip with government minders. The report said the living conditions in the camps had increasingly threatened Rohingyas' right to life and other basic rights, resulting in higher rates of malnutrition and other health problems.

The HRW called on the international community to exert more pressure on the government of Myanmar and hold officials accountable for the alleged abuses.

The abuses documented included denial of freedom of movement as well as widespread extortion. Those found outside the camp were also reportedly subjected to torture and other abuses by security forces, the report said.

"Life in the camp is so painful," a Rohingya man told the HRW. "There is no chance to move freely.… We have nothing called freedom."

The HRW accused the Myanmar government of using the earlier 2012 violence against Rohingya communities as a "pretext" to segregate and confine the population from the rest of the population.

In April 2017, the government announced that it would begin closing the camps, but actions later taken by the authorities only perpetuated the segregation of the Rohingya, denying them the right to return to their land, rebuild their homes, find work, and take their place back in Myanmar society.

The report said that the "sense of hopelessness in the camps" became pervasive, with not one Rohingya interviewed expressing the belief that their indefinite detention would end.

"I think the system is permanent," a Rohingya woman said. "Nothing will change. It is only words."

Further complicating the situation for Rohingyas is the Covid-19 pandemic, which has prompted the government to impose more restrictions on movement as part of an effort to contain the spread of the disease.

The HRW called on Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the military to take necessary steps to grant more freedom to Rohingyas who remain in the country. 

"The government's claims that it's not committing the gravest international crimes will ring hollow until it cuts the barbed wire and allows Rohingyas to return to their homes with full legal protection," it said.