Roma Begum, is a 14 year-old class VII student at Nayapara refugee camp, in south eastern Bangladesh. She wants to resettle in any third country she can to make something of her life after being educated.
In 1991, her family fled to Bangladesh from Burma because of religious persecution, restrictions on movement, forced labor, extortion and because Rohingyas are denied citizenship.
Roma completed class five in Nayapara School Number 3 in 2004, but could not go to high school because there is no high school in the refugee camps.
Like Roma, many students are unable to attend high school after completing class five.
She said some students study privately if they can afford to pay a teacher a fee of Taka 100 to 150 per month.
“My father is Iman Hussain. He is physically weak. He does not do anything,” Roma said in a recent interview.
“I live with my parents, three elder brothers and three younger sisters in the Nayapara official camp, which is supervised by the Bangladesh government and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Her elder brother Ayoub is a daily worker. He gets Taka 80 to 100 a day.
Rohingya students at Nayapara Refugee Camp
Roma Begum, Rohingya refugee student
Students at the Mela Camp, Thailand
“I am now studying privately. I have to pay Taka 100 to the private tutor a month. Occasionally, I have difficult in paying the teacher as my brother cannot go to work regularly.
“I want to become a good teacher in the Rohingya community to teach students who are unable to study,” Roma said.
She said the family does get a ration from the World Food Programme (WFP) including rice, oil, blended food, sugar, and salt among other items. But, if they want to eat good fish, vegetables, dried fish and meat, they must go to work, because these food items are not provided by the government, UNHCR or the WFP.
She is concerned because what is provided is not sufficient for her family members and she cannot pay her private tutor.
“My family has been living in the Bangladesh refugee camp since 1991, but I don’t see a future for my family, including my younger brothers and sisters.”
Her father, 50 year old, Iman Hussain, said, “I take care of my children and want to educate them, but I can’t. Now, I am physically weak.”
He is concerned about his children’s future prospects if they stay in the camp, because they can only receive primary education.
“It makes me cry that my life has been spoilt without education, but I don’t want to destroy the life of my children by staying in the camp. I want my children to be doctors, good teachers and engineers in a third country. So I want to be resettled in a third country through the UNHCR,” he said.
Kaleda Begum (15) of class VIII says, “I have been living in the Nayapara refugee camp for many years, but I don’t see a future. There are only schools till class five.”
She wants to go to high school and college in a third country.
“Now I am in class VIII in the camp as a private student. If I can study in a third country, I will be an educated person in the Arakanese Rohingya community. I want to be a good journalist,” she said.
A school teacher says the subjects taught up to class 5 are Burmese, English, Mathematics and Bangla at the primary level and there is no high school. After completing class five, some students study privately if they can afford it and some students drop out.
Another refugee student Zidar (17), son of Kaliur Rahaman, says, “We refugees want to resettle in a third country through the UNHCR and Bangladesh government because we have been living in a Bangladesh refugee camp since 1991, but there is no future. I would like to request the Bangladesh government, UNHCR including the international community to give us an opportunity on the basis of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)”.
A UNHCR report says, “From December in 1991 to March 1992, between 210,000 and 250,000 Burmese Rohingya fled Arakan state in western Burma for neighbouring Bangladesh. The Rohingya, later designated refugees by the UNHCR, claimed rape, torture, summary killings, confiscation and destruction of homes and property, destruction of mosques, physical abuse, religious persecution, and forced labour by Burmese armed forces. Their reports of widespread human rights abuses were verified by an Amnesty International fact-finding team sent to interview the refugees in Bangladesh.”
The report also says, “Repatriation of the 1991-92 Rohingyas (and any other Rohingyas in the UNHCR camps) was scheduled to be completed by the end of 1997, with 21,800 Rohingya remaining in two camps, Nayapara and Kutupalong at the end of June 1997. The Burmese government had said they would accept only 7,500 of the 21,800 [those 7,500 who had at that point been cleared in the verification process]. UNHCR requested Bangladesh that they resettle (with UNHCR assistance and resettlement packages) the remaining 14,300, but "with local hostility to the refugees increasing, and with Islamic fundamentalist elements actively working within the refugee camps," the Bangladeshi authorities refused (NCGUB July 1999, 251).
In February 1997, the refugees staged hunger strikes by refusing to accept rations. They alleged that the situation in Burma was unchanged and that some returnees had come back to Bangladesh, though some did not return to refugee camps for fear of re-repatriation (Seattle Times 25 September 1997).
Today, Bangladesh hosts approximately 28,000 Rohingya refugees in the two camps of Kutupalong and Nayapara. The remaining Rohingya refugees want a durable solution in any country immediately, but these Rohingya refugees are not willing to go back to Burma without citizenship and compensation, a community leader from the camp said on condition of anonymity.
In Thailand, there are nine refugee camps where refugees get assistance from UNHCR and NGOs in the form of education at the primary and high school level, healthcare, a good living standard and resettlement in third countries.
At Mela camp nearly 50,000 Burmese refugees, including Rohingya, live under the supervision of the United Nations High Commissioner for refugees (UNHCR), said a Rohingya refugee from Thailand on condition of anonymity.
An elder from Nayapara camp asked,” We, Rohingya refugees want to know from UNHCR, what is the difference between Rohingya refugees of Bangladesh and refugees Thailand? We became refugees in Bangladesh because of human rights abuses in Arakan State, Burma, while they also became refugees in Thailand for human rights abuses in Burma, They get all opportunities and we don’t get any opportunity. So where are our rights?”
He adds that he would like to urge the UNHCR and the international community to provide full rights to the Rohingya refugees on the basis of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)
Meanwhile, in Nayapara camp, Roma Begum is eager to go to high school and college and is asking for help.
“I have been living in the Bangladesh refugee camp since 1991,” she said. “So, I would like to earnestly request the UNHCR, the Government of Bangladesh and the international community to give us more educational facilities and a durable solution in any country.”
