ROHINGYA CHILDREN IN BANGLADESH
9-year-old Rashida* fled Myanmar in
August 2017, along with her parents and
siblings. She was just five years old. Now
living in a refugee camp in Bangladesh,
she wants to become a doctor or a teacher
when she is older so that she can help
others in her community.
I miss my home in Myanmar. In the camps here it is
very hot: there are no trees. Back home in Myanmar
we had many trees around to keep us cool and we
could play outside, but here we cannot. During the
rainy season here, water floods our shelters and
snakes and insects come inside.
I go to school but the schools have been closed here
for over a year now [because of the pandemic].
The school could be improved if they teach us using
the Myanmar curriculum. If they use this system
and have Myanmar teachers, our education will
improve… it would help me to be a doctor or teacher.
I am worried that if we cannot access education and
study here, our life will be very dark and we will not
have a future.
Kamar*, 13-year-old, arrived in
Bangladesh in March 2018. While he was
sad to leave his home in Myanmar, he
was also worried about whether he would
be able to continue his studies in the
refugee camp.
I do not attend the learning centers run by NGOs,
because they do not have formal education and they
do not teach older students. They cannot provide
me with what I need to receive a proper education,
so I attend school at a private center that is run by
Rohingya teachers, not humanitarians. They run
classes using the Myanmar curriculum. Because of the
pandemic, all of the learning centers have closed and
Bangladesh has a long history of hosting Rohingya
refugees. In 1978, some 250,000 Rohingya were
forced to flee Myanmar after a violent military
crackdown, while in 1991–92, around 200,000 fled
the country in search of safety across the border.
Most eventually returned to Myanmar. However,
evidence suggests that these repatriations were
we cannot continue our education. Although I still miss
my home in Myanmar, not having education is the
cause of my unhappiness.
I would like the Bangladesh government to give
us access to higher education to help children
and students to fulfill our aspirations. Also, if the
government and NGOs recruit Rohingya as teachers,
our education, and the education we receive at the
learning centers would improve. If we get education,
I think our future will be bright.
3 COUNTRY BY COUNTRY SNAPSHOT
3.2 BANGLADESH
17-year-old Mohamed* fled from Myanmar
to Bangladesh in 2017 and lives with his
parents and other relatives in the refugee
camp. He wants to return to Myanmar
as soon as possible, but only if he can get
citizenship and have equal rights to others
in the country.
When I first arrived I didn’t worry because I hadn’t
realized yet that the lives of refugees are like animals
in a zoo, but after a few days I realized everything.
Everything is different here. In Myanmar, I had a
wooden house but here we have only a shelter and
there are no proper schools, no playground and we do
not even have freedom of movement. I worry about
people starting fires, about our security at night, and
that we are not getting enough food.
I do not go to school because my family is very
poor. My father is quite old and he isn’t able to earn
enough money to survive. I work at a construction
site in the camp, carrying water for other people
who work there. I earn about 200 taka per day,
working three days per week to support my family
to survive. Not being able to go to school, I feel very
disappointed with my life because this is the time I
should be learning.
not voluntary and in both periods the government
of Bangladesh allowed conditions in the camps
to deteriorate, giving refugees no choice except
to return to Myanmar.72 From August 2017,
another violent military campaign forced more
than 730,000 Rohingya across the border to
Bangladesh.73 This expulsion came just under a year
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