formal education by successfully completing a pilot program for grades six to nine
using the Burmese national curriculum, and in August expanded the program to an
additional 100,000 Rohingya refugee children in kindergarten and grades one and
two. The government continued its policy forbidding education outside this
program after issuing an order in December 2021 to shut down thousands of
informal schools, affecting 32,000 students.
Government authorities allowed registered and unregistered Rohingya regular
access to public health care, but the Rohingya needed authorities’ permission to
leave the camp. Humanitarian partners ensured their health-care expenses were
covered and that they returned to the camps. The health sector maintained
information on all the health facilities within the camps and the surrounding areas.
Based on available data, overall coverage met the minimum requirements.
Bhasan Char had primary health-care facilities but lacked secondary and tertiary
facilities, necessitating referrals to medical facilities off the island for advancedlevel care. The transfer of patients to mainland facilities was hampered by
required authorizations to depart the island, weather conditions, and boat
availability. As of September, 453,160 Rohingya refugees (half of the total
refugees) in Cox’s Bazar received two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Specifically, 88 percent of Rohingya 12 years or older had received two doses.
The government planned to vaccinate the younger age groups in the coming
months. As of September in Bhasan Char, 11,651 refugees had received second
doses of COVID-19 vaccine.
In November and December, the government approved the resettlement of an
initial group of 62 refugees to the United States.
f. Status and Treatment of Internally Displaced Persons
Societal tensions and marginalization of Indigenous persons continued in the CHT
because of a government policy initiated during an internal armed conflict from
1973-97. This policy relocated landless ethnic Bengalis to the CHT with the
implicit objective of changing the demographic balance to make Bengalis the
majority. This initiative followed an earlier project in 1956 to construct a
hydroelectric dam in the CHT, flooding hundreds of villages and displacing tens of
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