pecial envoy to facilitate dialogue; humanitarian assistance by ASEAN; and the special envoy is to visit Myanmar and visit with all parties involved. A year later, Human Rights Watch urged ASEAN to apply and or adopt new responses in face of the growing crisis.
The process of resettlement to a third country has been difficult in the past years due to the pandemic. Though, several countries have opened their borders to accept more Rohingya refugees from Malaysia. There are an estimated 103,810 refugees in Malaysia with countries willing to double their acceptance.
UNICEF launched the Myanmar Curriculum Pilot, an initiative based upon their nations curriculum to ensure refugee children have the right to education. The operation received approval from Bangladesh authorities and 100,000 Refugee children living in Cox’s Bazar camp have enrolled to receive education with plans to begin later this month.
More than 30 schools were shut down across Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh. The camps host approximately 400,000 school-age children that attend community-ran schools to continue their education despite their refugee status. Though, authorities claim to have shut down the schools as community leaders failed to get permission to open them while others state they fear schools would encourage a permanent status within Bangladesh.
A boat bound for Malaysia with approximately 90 refugees onboard capsized and sank off the coast of Myanmar. Roughly 20 survivors were detained by authorities in the Ayeyarwady region (southwest region of Myanmar). The survivors state within a few days of taking off from Myanmar, the boat “ran into trouble”. More than 50 remain missing while 14 bodies have been recovered.
he UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filipp Grandi, promised to boost UN presence on Bhashan Char, an island off the coast of Bangladesh. The island is a source of space to alleviate overcrowding at Cox’s Bazar but it lacks proper infrastructure for their goal of 100,000 refugee living space. However, with greater assistance from the UN and already working NGOs, more is being accomplished to accommodate the refugees on the island. Though, only 13% of the UN’s $881 million response plan for the Rohingya has been funded showing the need for greater assistance.
26 Rohingya refugees were detained by Assam Police for illegally entering the Cachar district. The refugees allegedly entered India through the West Bengal border and sought Cachar district as they were in contact with locals that promised them work. The refugees were detained for not possessing the necessary paperwork leading to 12 of the 26 remanded and placed in custody. The remaining individuals were children, 7 of which were allowed to remain with their mother while the rest were sent to an observation home, an institution established by the government for neglected and juvenile children.
Refugees were attempting to cross the border back to Bangladesh. Some groups that managed to escape India were arrested in Bangladesh and later discovered to be on their way to the refugee camps. Rohingya human rights activists state the reason for refugees returning to Bangladesh is due to the Indian government’s focus on detention centers and involuntary repatriation.
The Thai government is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention which outlines the rights of refugees and state protocol to protect them. The Thai Navy recently found and detained 59 Rohingya stranded on an island south of the country making roughly 470 Rohingya in detention with no pathway to obtaining refugee status. The government announced it will maintain two policies: seize any boats stranded onshore and detain all of those accompanying it and intercept boats that advance onto the shore and provide them with necessary supplies and urge them to continue to Malaysia or Indonesia.
Thousands of Rohingya refugees staged peaceful protests throughout Cox’s Bazar with a slogan “Let’s go home”. The protestors handed out pamphlets that included their 19-point demands to safely return to Myanmar, one of which includes the