{"id":303841,"date":"2025-09-29T12:00:54","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T11:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=303841"},"modified":"2025-09-27T03:48:46","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T02:48:46","slug":"the-worlds-most-persecuted-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2025\/09\/the-worlds-most-persecuted-people\/","title":{"rendered":"The World\u2019s Most Persecuted People"},"content":{"rendered":"
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No easy way out – Photograph: Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

Dumb Ideas Are Worsening the Rohingyas\u2019 Dire Plight<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

25 Sep 2025\u00a0<\/em>–\u00a0\u201cNo food, no health, no education, no jobs. Just insecurity and uncertainty.\u201d That is how Jamilda Khatun describes conditions near Cox\u2019s Bazar in Bangladesh, where refugee camps house more than 1m people. Her family of eight has lived there since 2017. They came as part of an exodus from Rakhine state in neighbouring Myanmar, sparked when Myanmar\u2019s army launched attacks on the Rohingyas, a much persecuted Muslim minority (see map).<\/p>\n

Life for Rohingyas in Bangladesh\u2014and for those who remain in Rakhine\u2014has long been very grim. Yet lately a rash of awful setbacks has brought matters to a head. In New York on September 30th the UN General Assembly will hold a \u201chigh-level\u201d conference on the Rohingyas\u2014the first such meeting on their plight. But without swift action a worsening crisis could affect the entire region.<\/p>\n

The most immediate problem is cuts in funding for the camps in Cox\u2019s Bazar. America, long the biggest provider of cash, has slashed aid to them in the course of dismantling its development agency, USAID. Last year it gave around $300m; the figure for 2025 will probably be much lower. But the UN says that supporting the Rohingyas will cost around $934m this year, and that so far only about one-third of that total has been raised.<\/p>\n

The effects of the shortfall are growing more apparent on the ground. Already some 40% of children in the camps in Bangladesh are malnourished; some 25% of women are suffering from anaemia. Yet health clinics, like schools, are shutting down. The UN\u2019s World Food Programme, the sole source of food assistance, says cooking fuel will run out by next month. It warns that rations will be exhausted by the end of the year.<\/p>\n

While money dries up, the number of Rohingyas seeking refuge in Cox\u2019s Bazar is rising. Since the start of 2024 more than 150,000 additional people have left Myanmar for the camps\u2019 rickety, bamboo huts\u2014the biggest such influx for years.<\/p>\n

Many have been forced from their homes in Rakhine during fighting between Myanmar\u2019s junta and the Arakan Army (AA), one of several ethnic militias that are battling the Myanmar government in an endless civil war. But the AA\u2014which represents Rakhine\u2019s Buddhist majority and now controls most of the state\u2014is also accused of launching attacks on the Rohingyas themselves, including a massacre that killed hundreds in a village last year. The UN says the group has committed \u201cnumerous abuses and violations\u201d. (The AA denies that it has it in for the Rohingyas, saying it targets only armed militants.)<\/p>\n

Bangladesh, the refugees\u2019 reluctant host, is losing the will to help. Its own politics were thoroughly scrambled by a revolution last year. Its politicians are jostling for influence ahead of a fresh election that its caretaker government says will be held in 2026. These politicians are promising voters that they will find ways to pack the Rohingyas back to Myanmar, even as refugees continue to flow in.<\/p>\n

Some in Bangladesh reckon they can hasten the Rohingyas\u2019 return by egging on armed Rohingya groups that operate from the refugee camps. These militias have long been accused of running organised crime in Cox\u2019s Bazar, such as kidnapping and extortion. But lately they have been launching raids back across the border into Myanmar, in order to attack the Arakan Army. The squalor in the camps is making it easier for these groups to find recruits. A spokesperson for one of them, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, says people are joining because they \u201care left with no choice but to take responsibility for the Rohingyas\u2019 destiny\u201d.<\/p>\n

Yet more violence is hardly a solution. Battles between armed Rohingyas and the Arakan Army will probably make conditions in Rakhine even more miserable and force greater numbers to flee to Bangladesh, according to Thomas Kean of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group.<\/p>\n

The deteriorating situation could cause waves across the region. Perilous efforts to escape from Cox\u2019s Bazar are becoming more appealing. In May more than 400 people died after a boat carrying refugees capsized in the Bay of Bengal. But no country looks keen to take in Rohingyas. In January the Trump administration quashed one legitimate route by shutting down a refugee programme that had allowed 16,000 Rohingyas to be resettled in America since 2022. In May the UN said it had received \u201ccredible\u201d reports that an Indian naval vessel deporting Rohingyas from Delhi had dumped the refugees into waters near one of Myanmar\u2019s 800-or-so islands and made them swim to the shore.<\/p>\n

What might be done? The priority is to keep humanitarian aid flowing to Cox\u2019s Bazar. At a minimum that means more food, water and medical care. Ideally it would also mean better housing. Bangladesh currently bans the construction of structures that might be deemed permanent; it also forbids Rohingyas from working. It should be more lenient, on both counts.<\/p>\n

Reining in the camps\u2019 armed groups would make it easier for capable Rohingya politicians to emerge. Governments could also pressure the Arakan Army, now the de facto government in Rakhine, to improve things there. China, which has investments in the state and close ties to the AA, could play a big role in this, should it wish to. Yet there is a baleful risk that this forgotten crisis continues to be widely ignored.<\/p>\n

Go to Original – economist.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

25 Sep 2025\u00a0–\u00a0\u201cNo food, no health, no education, no jobs. Just insecurity and uncertainty.\u201d Dumb Ideas Are Worsening the Rohingyas\u2019 Dire Plight<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":303843,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[677],"tags":[1688,2923,526,101,100,1044,865,335,527,2706,99,92],"class_list":["post-303841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-updates-on-myanmar-rohingya-genocide","tag-bangladesh","tag-buddhists","tag-burma-myanmar","tag-cultural-violence","tag-direct-violence","tag-east-asia","tag-genocide","tag-muslims","tag-rohingya","tag-statelessness","tag-structural-violence","tag-violent-conflict"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303841"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":303844,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303841\/revisions\/303844"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}