Cox's Bazaar: A two-day discussion between urban Burmese refugees and UNHCR officials on refugee security, resettlement, health care, and education was concluded on Wednesday in the Bangladesh border town of Cox's Bazaar.
The meeting was held at Uni Resource hotel in Cox's Bazaar from August 19 to 20 August. Over 50 urban Burmese refugees attended the meeting with three officials from the UNHCR led by Jelvas Musau, Protection Officer.
Ko Kyaw Win, a Burmese refugee said, "The meeting is very useful for us and we are satisfied. The result of the meeting is great for us."
During the meeting, many Burmese refugees were able to talk about the problems they face in Bangladesh to the UNHCR officials. The issues that were most common among refugees are the current state of the resettlement programme and the subsistence allowances.
"We requested that the UNHCR officials consider a resettlement
programme for Burmese urban refugees here because we are unable to live in Bangladesh continuously without any income. Everybody knows the current commodity prices in Bangladesh, which are presently double what they were. Our daily life is difficult here," said Ko Kyaw Win.
Some refugees also requested that UNHCR officials grant a monthly allowance to urban Burmese refugees in the future because they had lost their projects that were undertaken as part of the UNHCR Lampson programme.
"UNHCR has arranged for a project in the name of a subsistence programme called Lampson, providing Burmese urban refugees a stipend after six months, but all the projects of the refugees had failed. The amount of money is very small and we have no markets or skills. How can we achieve our project in Bangladesh?
It is impossible to carry out such a project in Bangladesh. So we submitted to the UNHCR officials to consider supporting refugees with a monthly allowance. If not, we requested them to consider resettlement," said U San Mra Aung, another refugee.
UNHCR officials also promised to solve the problem somehow
in the future and they agreed to address the problems of Burmese refugees in Bangladesh with everyone's cooperation.
In Bangladesh, there are over 200 Burmese refugees and they are facing many problems in their daily life due to low incomes. However, no country has offered resettlement for urban Burmese refugees in Bangladesh.
Ko Tha Tun, an Arakanese refugee, said, "We can say it is discrimination by the Western countries because we are also Burmese refugees coming to Bangladesh for political reasons, but we have had no chance to resettle in any country, even though many Burmese refugees in Thailand and India have received the opportunity of resettlement."
