Statelessness and Young Children had escaped, demonstrating the psychological effects of forced displacement. 39 Loss of identity, culture, language and community and problems with legal status further exacerbate these challenges, creating cycles of depression and mental health problems that can last for years, and, indeed, can be transmitted across generations.40 Yet few specific and tailored approaches currently exist to meet the psychological and emotional needs of refugees. RTI addresses this gap by providing psychological and trauma-informed care for refugees, with a strong focus on reinforcing identity — a casualty of statelessness — within the chaos of displacement. This is achieved through a range of carefully structured interventions, one of which is Baytna (meaning ‘Our Home’ in Arabic), an innovative early childhood development (‘ECD’) intervention for young refugee children, who are in the first six years of life, and their families.41 The programme provides routine, stable and consistent care and safety for children and their carers through a range of activities designed to encourage creativity, self-expression, empathy and, especially, reinforce identity. B Displacement of Rohingya Children One of the biggest refugee crises in recent years has been the displacement of the Rohingya people from Myanmar to Bangladesh. Since August 2017, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya people have fled persecution and violence in Myanmar. By the end of 2020, the Cox’s Bazar District in Bangladesh was hosting more than 860,000 Rohingya people, with over 55% of them below 18 years of age. 42 In Myanmar, most Rohingya have no legal identity or citizenship and, unless there are conditions in place in Myanmar that would allow Rohingya people to return with basic rights, they will remain refugees.43 Children are at real risk of becoming a ‘lost generation’, vulnerable to poor health, malnutrition and a lack of learning opportunities, which in recent months has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.44 There is a complex policy environment that surrounds the Rohingya people in Bangladesh.45 The enormous scale of the influx of persons put immense pressure on the Bangladeshi host community of Cox’s Bazar, which is one of the most impoverished districts in the country. 46 Despite the challenges they faced, the host 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 Z Noor and Aisha K Yousafzai, An Evaluation and Review to Inform Progress and Strategy Planning (Report, Refugee Trauma Initiative, 2021). ibid. Moving Minds Alliance, Case Study, Batnya: Early Childhood Development for Refugees in Greece (Case Study, May 2019) <https://movingmindsalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/ 2019/05/moving-minds-alliance-baytna-case-study.pdf>. Cox’s Bazar Education Sector and REACH, Bangladesh: Assessment of the Education Sector Response to the Rohingya Crisis (Report, 30 March 2021) 1 <https://www.impactrepository.org/document/reach/1a8e426c/REACH_Education-Sector-Assessment_ThematicBriefs_March_2021.pdf>. Syed S Mahmood et al, ‘The Rohingya People of Myanmar: Health, Human Rights, and Identity’ (2017) 389(10081) The Lancet 1841, 1841–44. Mst Umme Habiba Fahmina Karim, No Education — Lost Generation: The Right to Education of Rohingyas in Bangladesh (Inclusive Citizenship & Human Rights Policy Brief No 4, HL-Senteret Minority Network, 2020). Abhishek Bhatia et al, ‘The Rohingya in Cox’s Bazar: When the Stateless Seek Refuge’ (2018) 20(2) Health and Human Rights 105, 116–20. See ibid; Abud Hasnat Milton et al, ‘Trapped in Statelessness: Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh’ (2017) 14(8) International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 1, 3. 159