ROHINGYA EMERGENCY FLEEING VIOLENCE

Nearly 1 million forced from their homes

The exodus from Myanmar of more than 688,000 Rohingya people, more than sixty percent, of whom are children, is now the world’s top refugee crisis.

A crisis where families – experiencing persecution, the death of family members, and the destruction of their home villages – are risking everything to reach some measure of safety in Bangladesh.  They arrive in camps – such as the Kutupalong – seeking food, water, shelter, and health care after treacherous journeys.

As the displacement continues, the need for additional aid is urgent. Thousands of Rohingya refugees who have settled in the villages of Shamlapur, Leda and Unchiprang in the southern part of Cox’s Bazar district are at risk of being left out of humanitarian aid programs, as international attention focuses on the humanitarian crisis in the main Kutupalong and Balukhali settlements.

The United Nations has described the Rohingya as the most persecuted people in the world and the military offensive which provoked this exodus as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing.” While the majority in Myanmar are Buddhist, the Rohingya Muslim minority has long lived in the region, developing their own culture and speaking their own language. They have been denied citizenship in Myanmar, which views them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.