ROHINGYA CHILDREN’S EDUCATION: Int’l community must share responsibility: Amnesty
The international community must not avoid its responsibility to the education of Rohingya children in Cox’s Bazar camps, Amnesty International said ahead of the first Global Refugee Forum.
More than half a million children have yet to the see the inside of a classroom since they arrived in the refugee camps more than two years ago, the global rights body said in a press statement on Saturday.
The Global Refugee Forum -- which is being hosted by the UN’s refugee agency in Geneva and takes place between December 16-18 -- has made education of one its six key themes.
“The Rohingya children in the camps in Cox’s Bazar must not become a lost generation. The international community must accept that they will not be able to return home to Myanmar anytime soon. And they cannot continue to see their futures slowly stolen from them in conditions where they are being denied their right to education,” said Saad Hammadi, South Asia Campaigner at Amnesty International.
“When a child receives an education, everyone benefits. Both Bangladesh and the international community must step up and share the responsibility of educating all children in Cox’s Bazar, Rohingya refugees and the host community as well. The Bangladesh government can start by lifting the restrictions on education for refugees currently in place,” the statement said.
According to a multi-sector needs assessment released by the Inter Sector Coordination Group in October 2019, nearly third of 1,311 households surveyed in Cox’s Bazar have at least one primary or secondary school-aged child who was not attending school.
The 2019 Joint Response Plan for Rohingya refugees and the host community in Cox’s Bazar received only 40 percent of the funding requirement for education out of US$ 59.9 million as of October, the statement said.
Humanitarian officials fear that the funding for education may decline further in 2020.
“It is in everyone’s interests to see that all children in Cox’s Bazar receive a quality education... Education can lift entire communities,” said Saad Hammadi.
Far from being a burden on a national economy, it should be seen as an investment that will yield great dividends. But the denial of education can have very negative consequences,” he added.
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