It also called on the government to open its borders to Rohingyas fleeing sectarian violence and abuses by Myanmarese security forces in Arakan State in western Myanmar, said a press release of New York-based Human Rights Watch published on Wednesday.
In late July, the Bangladesh government ordered three prominent international aid organisations – Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), Action Contre la Faim (Action Against Hunger), and Muslim Aid – to cease providing assistance to Rohingyas living in Cox’s Bazar and surrounding areas, the organisation claimed.
“The Bangladeshi government is trying to make conditions for Rohingya refugees already living in Bangladesh so awful that people fleeing brutal abuses in neighbouring Burma (Myanmar) will stay home,” said Bill Frelick, director of the Refugees Programme at Human Rights Watch.
“This is a cruel and inhumane policy that should immediately be reversed. The government should be welcoming aid organisations that provide life-saving aid, not shutting down their programmes to assist refugees.”
“Since mid-June, Bangladesh authorities have admitted to forcing back at least 1,300 Rohingyas trying to flee to Bangladesh, though the actual number is likely substantially higher,” the HRW said.
“Rohingyas are escaping killings, looting, and other sectarian violence in Arakan State, as well as abuses by the Burmese (Myanmarese) authorities, including ethnically motivated attacks and mass arrests.”
The Bangladesh government contends that the presence of aid groups in Cox’s Bazar encourages Myanmarese Rohingyas to come to Bangladesh, and that it cannot afford to host them, the press release said.
The three aid organisations provide water, healthcare, sanitation, and other basic assistance to Rohingya refugees and asylum seekers in Bangladesh.
“Bangladesh authorities are placing the lives of Rohingya refugees at grave risk by forcing aid groups to stop their feeding and health programmes,” Frelick said.
“It is unthinkable that the government would actively attempt to make the terrible conditions faced by Rohingya even worse by stopping aid from reaching them.”
The sectarian violence in Arakan state broke out in early June between ethnic Arakan Buddhists and both Rohingya and non-Rohingya Muslims, displacing over 100,000 people.
Myanmarese authorities failed to protect both communities from violent mobs and committed killings, beatings, rape, mass arrests, and other abuses against Rohingya, in some cases alongside armed Arakan.
As a result of the violence and abuses, thousands of Rohingyas attempted to flee to Bangladesh for safety. “But they’ve been met with a sealed border and a Bangladesh government policy of push-backs that constitute refoulement, forced return, in violation of international law,” the HRW said.
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