A Rohingya refugee child reacts as people queue for aid in a camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, September 22, 2017.Reuters
Nearly 500,000 Rohingya people have fled from Myanmar since August after violence erupted in the western state of Rakhine. Considered to be a Muslim minority in Myanmar, these people have suffered immensely due to their very identities over the past few years. Not considered as an official ethnic group by the Myanmar government, they have been termed illegal immigrants and have been denied citizenship in Myanmar leaving them homeless.
As stated by The Telegraph, as many as 120,000 have tried to flee Myanmar by boat in order to find refuge in the neighboring countries including Malaysia and Indonesia over the past three years.
They have been deprived of fundamental rights such as education, marriage, health services, travel, work and other basic necessities without official permission. Persecution and oppression have been like an everyday affair for the Rohingya.
Termed by the United Nations as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world, they have been victims of inhuman atrocities. Their thatched homes have been burned down by the Myanmar military and they have been subjected to rapes, forced labor, land confiscation and discrimination by the overpowering majority. Unable to bear the persecution in Myanmar, these oppressed masses have been fleeing to neighboring Bangladesh.
"Rohingya refugees must be allowed to go back to their homes voluntarily and in safety and dignity. The Myanmar government must make every effort to rebuild communities and villages destroyed by fighting, and to end the entrenched discrimination and segregation of the Rohingya which lies at the heart of this crisis," Audrey Gaughran, Amnesty International's Director for Global Issues said.
As stated by Amnesty International, the Bangladesh and Myanmar governments have announced that they have established a working group to discuss the repatriation of Rohingya refugees this week. In this gallery, IBTimes Singapore has compiled a series of images of the plight of the Rohingya refugees.
Lalu Miya cries over the bodies of his wife and children, who died after a boat with Rohingya refugees capsized as they were fleeing Myanmar, before the funeral just behind Inani Beach near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh September 29, 2017. Miya, whose family was on the boat that capsized, just off the shore of Bangladesh, survived but three of his children and wife died in the accident. Two other of his children remain missing.Reuters
Military and local security personnel keep Rohingya refugees in line as they queue for aid at Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, September 26, 2017.Reuters
A Rohingya refugee reacts as people scuffle while waiting to receive aid in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, September 26, 2017.Reuters
A Rohingya refugee carries her child in a refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, September 24, 2017.Reuters
Rohingya refugees scuffle as aid is distributed in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, September 23, 2017.Reuters
A Rohingya refugee boy carries his belongings as he walks to a makeshift camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh September 18, 2017.Reuters
Rohingya refugees carry their child as they walk through water after crossing border by boat through the Naf River in Teknaf, Bangladesh, September 7, 2017.Reuters
A newly arrived Rohingya refugee waits to be transferred to a camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, October 2, 2017.Reuters
A woman carries her ill child in a refugee camp at Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, September 26, 2017.Reuters
Rohingya refugees react as aid is distributed in a camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, September 19, 2017.Reuters
A Rohingya refugee carries a child through a paddy field after crossing the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, in Teknaf, Bangladesh, September 6, 2017.Reuters
Rohingya children cross the Bangladesh-Myanmar border fence as they try to enter Bangladesh in Bandarban, an area under Cox's Bazar authority, Bangladesh, August 29, 2017.Reuters
Rohingya refugees collapse from exhaustion as they arrive by a small wooden boat from Myanmar to the shore of Shah Porir Dwip, in Teknaf, near Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh, October 1, 2017. Picture taken October 1, 2017.Reuters
