The conflict and humanitarian crisis is far from over; it has merely evolved. As the graphic stories of mass murder, sexual abuse, and pillaging began to dry up, so did the international community’s focus on the Rohingya’s plight. But with over 650,000 of the minority currently displaced inside Bangladesh — where they fled to escape a brutal onslaught from the Myanmar military — the suffering, and indeed the conflict, is far from over.
Cox’s Bazar, a fishing port in southeast Bangladesh, now unwillingly finds itself at the heart of the world’s fastest growing refugee crisis. With the physical and mental scars of violence and harassment their only possessions, entire families have been packed into tarpaulin sheds, with water, food, and sanitary resources stretched thin. Almost half are children — some unaccompanied, and some parenting their younger siblings. Their destitution makes them vulnerable to sex and child traffickers, criminal and drug gangs, and radicalization. Meanwhile, the strains of hosting the Rohingya community is beginning to show on Bangladesh’s already fragile economy, as the threat of disease and inclement weather looms...
(Rohingya refugees at Jamtoli refugee camp near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, Sunday, Jan. 28, 2018. Image Credit: AP Photo/Manish Swarup)