{"id":94307,"date":"2017-06-26T12:00:03","date_gmt":"2017-06-26T11:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=94307"},"modified":"2017-06-20T16:02:57","modified_gmt":"2017-06-20T15:02:57","slug":"bangladesh-cardinal-defends-rights-of-rohingya-refugees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/06\/bangladesh-cardinal-defends-rights-of-rohingya-refugees\/","title":{"rendered":"Bangladesh Cardinal Defends Rights of Rohingya Refugees"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar are considered to be among the world’s most persecuted peoples, subject to what the UN calls “crimes against humanity\u201d and hundreds of thousands are now refugees in neighboring Bangladesh, where Cardinal Patrick D’Rozario is defending their right to “dignity.”<\/em><\/p>\n

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European Commission officials visit camps for internally displaced Rohingyas in Burma.
(Credit: Evangelos Petratos EU\/ECHO, Pauktaw via Flickr.)<\/p><\/div>\n

20 Jun 2017 – <\/em>Cardinal Patrick D\u2019Rozario of Bangladesh, where Pope Francis is expected to visit later this year and where Rohingya Muslim refugees from Myanmar have to date received a decidedly uneven reception, said on World Refugee Day that these new arrivals are \u201chuman beings who have a right to dwell in their own traditional way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have a right to live where they have been living, but now they are refugees,\u201d said D\u2019Rozario, made his country\u2019s first-ever cardinal by Pope Francis in November 2016.<\/p>\n

The Rohingya are a Muslim minority in largely Buddhist Myanmar, also known as Burma, who have been fleeing in the face of rising levels of persecution, including rapes and extra-judicial killings.<\/p>\n

A UN report in February described their situation as a possible \u201cgenocide\u201d and a set of \u201ccrimes against humanity\u201d in Myanmar, where the Rohingya are officially categorized as Bengali \u201cinterlopers\u201d despite the fact they\u2019ve lived in Rakhine for generations.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re subject to what the UN also called a \u201ccampaign of terror,\u201d and enjoy no citizenship rights – in effect, they\u2019re stateless.<\/p>\n

Often the Rohingya try to reach neighboring Bangladesh, which has an official policy of trying to make them unwelcome. Despite that ambivalence, as of early 2017 the United Nations estimated some 300,000 to 500,000 Rohingya were living in Bangladesh.<\/p>\n

D\u2019Rozario credited his country with being \u201creceptive\u201d and \u201cproviding emergency aid,\u201d but told Crux<\/em> that \u201cinternational pressure is required for a long-term solution.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is also the responsibility of neighboring places to seek a permanent solution to this refugee crisis,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

D\u2019Rozario acknowledged the efforts of Catholic groups in Bangladesh to assist the Rohingya, including Caritas, the international umbrella group for Catholic charitable organizations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Rohingyas are being denied the right to habitation, they are living in desperate conditions, [and] they are frustrated,\u201d D\u2019Rozario said. \u201cRefugees have a right to live with dignity and security.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pope Francis has spoken out repeatedly about the plight of the Rohingya. He did so for the first time in August 2015, during a session with youth in Rome.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s think of those brothers of ours of the\u00a0Rohingya,\u201d he said. \u201cThey were chased from one country and from another and from another. When they arrived at a port or a beach, they gave them a bit of water or a bit to eat and were then chased out to the sea.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a conflict that has not resolved, and this is war, this is called violence, this is called killing!\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

One month later, he brought the Rohingya up again in an interview with Portuguese radio.\u201cFurther away from Europe there is another phenomenon which hurt me deeply: the Rohingya, who are expelled from their country, get into boats and leave,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey reach a port or a beach, and they are fed and given water and then sent out to sea again, and not taken in. There is a lack of capacity for welcoming humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Francis came at the subject again in February, saying on the Church\u2019s International Day of Prayer and Awareness against Human Trafficking that \u201cthey have been suffering, they are being tortured and killed, simply because they uphold their Muslim faith.<\/p>\n

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Pope Francis criticised Myanmar after a UN report detailed atrocities against the Rohingya. Photo: AP<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI would like to pray today with you in a special way for our brothers and sisters Rohingya,\u201d the pontiff said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are driven out of Myanmar, going from one place to another because they\u2019re not wanted. They\u2019re good people, peaceful! They aren\u2019t Christians, they\u2019re good [people]. They\u2019re brothers and sisters of ours,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The remarks were spontaneous, suggesting the issue is close to Francis\u2019s heart.<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 cruxnow.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar are considered to be among the world’s most persecuted peoples, subject to what the UN calls “crimes against humanity\u201d and hundreds of thousands are now refugees in neighboring Bangladesh, where Cardinal Patrick D’Rozario is defending their right to “dignity.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asia-pacific"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94307","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=94307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94307\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}