UNICEF is an organization created by the UN to send people all over the world to help people suffering in humanitarian crisises, such as the Rohingya genocide happening in Myanmar. So far, UNICEF has distributed an oral vaccine to more than 1.2 million refugees , along with providing drinking water to 380,000 people in Bangladesh. UNICEF also did more than just distribute resources to the refugees, such as focusing on the children in these camps. In many of Bangladesh’s camps, they made many child-friendly spaces for Rohingya children to learn and play and by protecting young girls in these camps from gender based violence. UNICEF also helped many refugee children to continue their schooling in the camp setting up learning centers and developing a curriculum to teach them at school.

Sources:

https://www.unicef.org/emergencies/bangladesh_100945.html https://www.unicef.org/child-alert/rohingya-refugee-children-futures-in-balance

On February 29, 2019, Bangladesh foreign secretary, Shahidul Haque, stated that Bangladesh can no longer be able to allow more refugees from Myanmar. For a long time, the Rohingya sought refuge in Bangladesh to escape the persecution they faced in Myanmar, since Bangladesh borders Myanmar. Originally, Bangladesh was praised for welcoming thousands of refugees through their border. As more refugees came though, Bangladesh was unable to handle so many people arriving. This led to Cox’s Bazar, a city in Bangladesh, to become the largest refugee camp in the world with worsening conditions. In these refugee camps, the Rohingya had to endure harsh conditions, such as monsoons, cyclones, and flooding. Meanwhile, the Rohingya would have to live in flimsy huts made out of stick and bamboo and they would have to rely on humanitarian aid in order to get food, medicine, and other supplies. Now Myanmar is expected to protect the Rohingya, even though Myanmar was unable to fufill their promise on protecting the Rohingya from attacks, as the Rohingya still faced persecution and were terrorized by the Buddhist majority in Myanmar.

Sources: http://time.com/5541706/bangladesh-no-more-rohingya-myanmar-united-nations/

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/01/rohingya-crisis-bangladesh-says-it-will-not-accept-any-more-myanmar-refugees

https://www.worldvision.org/refugees-news-stories/myanmar-refugee-crisis-facts

Not a lot of people know who the Rohingya are. Here’s some information about them. There are about 3.5 million Rohingya in the whole world, with 1 million of them living in Myanmar, a country in Southeast Asia. The Rohingya practice a Sufi- inflected version of Sunni- Islam. The Rohingya are an ethnic Muslim minority in Myanmar and many of them are located in the Rakhine state. The Buddhist majority in Myanmar has major cultural and linguistic differences with the Rohingya, which caused some of them to take action. Many Buddhist nationalists terrorized the Rohingya either through rape, destruction of villages, or homicide. The Myanmar government also enacted many discriminatory policies against them, such as restricting them from an education, marriage, children, and many other privileges. The places where the Rohingya lived had widespread poverty, poor housing, lack of basic healthcare, and a high unemployment rate. The Rohingya aren’t even recognized by the government as citizens, even though the Rohingya can trace their ancestory from Myanmar centuries ago. All of these factors caused the Rohingya to leave Myanmar and seek refuge in bordering countries like Bangladesh or Thailand.

Sources:

https://www.facinghistory.org/educator-resources/current-events/responding-rohingya-crisis 

https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/rohingya-crisis

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/09/rohingya-refugee-crisis-myanmar-burma-spd/